送交者: 吴礼 于 2006-1-07, 11:05:35:
回答: I think the idea about "完善的计划经济" and its counterpart in China 由 mangolasi 于 2006-1-07, 08:21:04:
Why won’t Utopia work?
According to Marxism, communism will work because people will become altruistic as material abundance becomes reality: since you already have all that you want (materialistically speaking), you will have no reason to be greedy. People still seek something from the society: intellectual, recognition, self-realization, etc. But these are not scarce resources and won’t induce competition. Therefore, people can work with perfect cooperation.
The underlying assumption here is that people’s materialist desire is limited, and can be overtaken by productivity. This is true considering the biological nature of human being. However, the emergence of capitalistic culture changed the picture. The capitalists don’t seek money for personal enjoyment. They seek money as a symbol of success. Therefore, their appetite for money is unlimited. On the other hand, in order to make more money, the capitalists must sell more products, regardless of whether the products are actually needed. So they created a culture where everyone wants unlimited material enjoyment. The more you want, the more you work, and the more money you make for the company owners. Therefore, the assumption of Marxism is invalidated.
So, in my opinion, the socialist system is scientifically viable. But it cannot coexist with the capitalist system. Of course, in reality, we haven’t reached the material abundance that Marx envisioned. That’s why it fails in Russia and China and elsewhere.
In order to understand the transition from socialist to capitalist systems, we should keep in mind that this is intrinsically a non-stable and non-sustaining process. Many critics of the Chinese situation are based on Western economics theories, where equilibrium and stability are desired (at least to the first order approximation). Actually, in the phase of fast growing and modernization, breaking existing equilibrium is as challenging and as important as establishing new ones. Managing Chinese economy is more like surfing: you cannot expect to see the future. You just have to be agile enough so you can react quickly as things happen. I think this view would help us to resolve some puzzles as we watch things evolve in China.
That said, I am still disappointed at the pace in which modern political system develops in China. I think eventually the lag in political progress will choke the economic growth, and will be likely to cause unrest. I pray that this will not happen, but I cannot make myself optimistic about it.
I don’t quite agree that the cultural difference between China and the rest of the world is critical in choosing development strategy for China. Although Chinese culture is fundamentally incompatible with the modern economical and political systems, its inference on the current Chinese (especially the intellectuals) is limited. Most of the current leaders and policy makers are educated with Western science. They probably know little and care even less about what Confucius said. Personally, I had many discussions with my classmates who live in the US or China. I don’t find systematic difference in their views. Of course, the ordinary people are more traditional. It will take a long time to change that. However, if we believe that the modern market economy can take root in China, we should also be optimistic about the democratic systems. The reason is simple: these two are based on the same paradigm of thinking. In fact they need each other to function effectively.