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I think you'd have to be very clear about how this is different than the previous attempts at such "rationally planned democratic societies".

• lostlogin 3y ago
  The ‘central planning committee’ and ‘the 5 year plan’ certainly have some baggage attached.
  • littlestymaar 3y ago
    Yup. Years of propaganda convinced most people that these are exclusive features of Communist dictatorship, when they actually existed in post war capitalist societies as well. Fun historical fact: the father of the European Union, Jean Monnet, was the head of the “central planning committee” in France in 1950 (and he really wasn't a commie).
• MeImCounting 3y ago
  I am not in favor of a planned economy, but I do believe our society faces a significant issue with certain individuals hoarding money and resources. If we are to employ a group that uses violence to enforce the will of the majority under the threat of violence, then we should at least utilize this forceful approach to prevent some individuals from becoming entrenched in power and wealth. As they exist now, mechanisms of state violence exist primarily to suppress the uneducated and poor of our society. We should not allow people to hoard wealth. I dont know where that cutoff is or how it should be decided. Maybe increasingly aggressive taxes with no loopholes? It does need to happen
  • eej71 3y ago
    You have provided, perhaps unintentionally, a wonderful concretization on the difference between political power and economic power. In even simpler terms, its the difference between the gun and the dollar.
    • MeImCounting 3y ago
      That is indeed the comparison I was trying to make. The average citizen should (if our democratic system worked correctly) wield just as much political power as the oligarch through his vote and so should be able to wield that power, collectively with the rest of society, to limit the economic power of the oligarch. Unfortunately as our system works now the oligarch wields both substantially more political power through lobbying and general corruption in the government and courts as well as clearly wielding more economic power. What I am saying is that we as a society should endeavor to reduce the misbalance in economic power between the oligarch and the average citizen.
• littlestymaar 3y ago
  Well, the examples you have mind are likely not “democratic societies” (even though they often put a “Democratic“ in their name for good measure). But then, if you look at the US from the new deal to Reagan or most of Western Europe from WWII to the 80s, you have an idea of what a planned[1] democratic society looks like. And then the scarecrow is less powerful as an argument, isn't it? Also, Communism hasn't been defeated by the power of the Free Market. It has been defeated by the appeal of democratic societies living under a welfare state system. When all a democracy has to offer is a free market but no shared well-being, dictatorship is around the corner. (You can already see it with the rise of populists leaders all around the western world). [1] there used to be so much more planning compared to what goes now that from today's perspective I feel it's fair to call that “planned societies”.