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A Reply to Arnold's Reply

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 December 2008

David Schweickart
David Schweickart
Affiliation:
Loyola University of Chicago
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Extract

Professor Arnold's reply to my reply seems not to have touched the substance of my argument. Perhaps I have been unclear. Arnold contends that any form of market socialism, if unchecked by central authorities, would revert to a system essentially undistinguishable from capitalism. Against this contention I have argued that a democratic, worker-controlled, market socialism that generates its investment fund by taxation exhibits no such tendency. Specifically, I argued that in such a society

1. there exists no tendency for socialized property to revert to private property (since workers have no incentive to sell off their firms to private individuals);

2. the ability of private individuals to accumulate vast wealth is sharply curtailed (since interest and stock income are absent);

3. the authority structures within enterprises are much more democratic than under capitalism;

4. intra-firm income differentials will be far more egalitarian than under capitalism.

Type
Discussions
Information
Economics & Philosophy , Volume 3 , Issue 2 , October 1987 , pp. 331 - 334
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1987

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References

REFERENCES

Arnold, N. Scott. 1987. “Further Thoughts on the Degeneration of Market Socialism: A Reply to Schweickart.” Economics and Philosophy 3:320–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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