Letter: Creeping greed (1979)

Letter to the Editors from the August 1979 issue of the Socialist Standard

I have been reading through several issues of the Socialist Standard which you were kind enough to send me and have found them interesting. Some of your principles are very attractive, and yet I am curious as to how they can be made to work in practice.

I must confess that this probably stems from my ignorance of socialism. However, your writers do seem to refer quite frequently to free access to goods depending on needs, and also there is reference to the idea of abolishing the wage system. I would like to know how all this can be made to work in practice. For example, what would replace the wages system, and what sort of society could we have which would provide goods and services according to individual needs without an element of greed creeping in?

Barry A. Todd 

(Prestwick, Manchester)

Reply:

It is not for us to describe in detail the social system that will arise following the establishment of common ownership of the means of production, for we cannot foretell what conditions will prevail at the time. All we can do is state the broad changes that we know must arise.

The most obvious is that the wages system would be abolished, since nobody would be in a position to exploit labour power. With the instruments of production socially owned, no one would wish to sell their ability to work for another’s profit, even if a buyer could be found. The very conditions of wage labour — the divorce of the majority from the means of life — will have ceased to exist, and all forms of exchange would disappear.

Necessity alone will dictate industrial activity. If goods are produced in excess of demand, production will be curtailed; should needs be unsatisfied, production will increase. Individuals will determine their own needs, and society will devise means by which people can make their requirements known (not a difficulty, given computer technology). All who were capable would work to the best of their abilities and take freely from the social wealth. We do not accept that, having opted for a non-cocrcive society, people will act against their own interests and refuse to co-operate in productive work.

The view that people are innately selfish is a fallacious one, fostered by the society in which we live. The concept of greed can only have meaning where access to wealth is restricted and scarcity is commonplace. Under capitalism the ruthless pursuit of self-interest is encouraged; in socialism it would be an absurdity. And even the pig will turn away from the trough when it can eat no more.

Editors.