Tapsearch Com EditorWorkers Utopia (LINK)
July 17th 2008 20:27
By Ray Tapajna reviewing Alan Greenspan's examples related to Peter Maurin and own work in factories.
I found it quite unusual for Alan Greenspans using The New Harmony workers community as an example in his book The Age of Turbulence. He apparently wanted to prove that "utopia" work experiments in history have failed. In giving this example, he opens the door to human nature responses to economics. He seems to say that Capitalism fits the condition of human nature frailities rather than our strengths. He seems to say human beings are born to be competitive and profit is a vital human goal with greed being a part of it. Afterall, no one knows how much a person really needs to make to be totally secure.
On the other hand we have someone like Peter Maurin, who is considered the philosopher of the Catholic Workers movement, who challenges the industrial revolution as something unnatural. Aristotle did say making money on money is unnatural but labor and work seems to be something aside from this and not directly being a part of money. However, money is made on the use of workers and labor by owners who do not do the labor. So workers should be included in the unatural interpretation of making money on money.
The New Harmony workers community represented a communual effort in supplying the needs of all within their community in an equitable sharing arrangement. Individual profit was to be shared by all by labor and work. Robert Owen rejected Christianity in favor of rational philosophy based on social reform. He managed factories in Manchester and was considered to have considerable economic skills. He improved and expanded the school system for all ages. He came to the U.S. and started New Harmony. He believed that the community would serve as the model for an new moral world. New Harmon stressed equality for all. This equality included the responsibility of each citizen to contribute to the labor force of the community. New Harmony's money was based on "time money" and "time stores". The currency was worth the amount of time that a worker labored and could be exchanged for commodities worth the equivalent amount of labor. He did not believe that God and the community lacked a central convenant that could hold a standard of conduct. Because of this, there was little to unite the groups of poeple living in New Harmony.
This may be an oversimplification of why New Harmony failed but it points out that the economic style was not the main reason for New Harmony's failure. Human Nature kicked in without any center of conduct. Alan Greenspan misses the point and skims around the frailities of human nature that allows greed to take control of labor and work.
to be continued.....
I found it quite unusual for Alan Greenspans using The New Harmony workers community as an example in his book The Age of Turbulence. He apparently wanted to prove that "utopia" work experiments in history have failed. In giving this example, he opens the door to human nature responses to economics. He seems to say that Capitalism fits the condition of human nature frailities rather than our strengths. He seems to say human beings are born to be competitive and profit is a vital human goal with greed being a part of it. Afterall, no one knows how much a person really needs to make to be totally secure.
On the other hand we have someone like Peter Maurin, who is considered the philosopher of the Catholic Workers movement, who challenges the industrial revolution as something unnatural. Aristotle did say making money on money is unnatural but labor and work seems to be something aside from this and not directly being a part of money. However, money is made on the use of workers and labor by owners who do not do the labor. So workers should be included in the unatural interpretation of making money on money.
The New Harmony workers community represented a communual effort in supplying the needs of all within their community in an equitable sharing arrangement. Individual profit was to be shared by all by labor and work. Robert Owen rejected Christianity in favor of rational philosophy based on social reform. He managed factories in Manchester and was considered to have considerable economic skills. He improved and expanded the school system for all ages. He came to the U.S. and started New Harmony. He believed that the community would serve as the model for an new moral world. New Harmon stressed equality for all. This equality included the responsibility of each citizen to contribute to the labor force of the community. New Harmony's money was based on "time money" and "time stores". The currency was worth the amount of time that a worker labored and could be exchanged for commodities worth the equivalent amount of labor. He did not believe that God and the community lacked a central convenant that could hold a standard of conduct. Because of this, there was little to unite the groups of poeple living in New Harmony.
This may be an oversimplification of why New Harmony failed but it points out that the economic style was not the main reason for New Harmony's failure. Human Nature kicked in without any center of conduct. Alan Greenspan misses the point and skims around the frailities of human nature that allows greed to take control of labor and work.
to be continued.....
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