Re: [tlug] (OT) The enigma of Japan (was: UNIX jobs on TLUG)

["Stephen J. Turnbull" <stephen@example.com>]

Christian Horn writes:

 > Was more thinking of adopting communist ideas to make the system
 > work for bigger shares of the citizens.

*sigh*  All I can say is "be careful what you wish for, your wish
might come true."

Remember, there's a fundamental problem of information here.  The
Communist system is supposed to be characterized by "from each
according to his abilities, to each according to his needs".
Everybody focuses on the benefits of redistributing social wealth
toward themselves^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hneedy citizens, but conveniently
ignore the much harder and more fundamental problem of eliciting work
from the able, or even discovering who is able to do what.

Until we see a significant number of people writing to their
legislators asking that the government create programs where they can
contribute their skills and other resources for free, this fundamental
*informational* imbalance will persist, and a communist system will
not be feasible.  I'm not joking; information about needs is readily
available to the government, there are plenty of people asking the
government to give them something without offering anything in return.
Why not people offering without asking for a return?