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fantasma13's review against another edition
4.0
A bit outdate and as such a bit out of what would be the debate now, almost 40 years after the fact.
But still economicly and ploliticly as solid as something writen today!
But still economicly and ploliticly as solid as something writen today!
cgooch's review
informative
4.0
Read this for a socialist reading group. This book contains some really interesting ideas for how a planned economy can be successfully run, and led to some great discussions
cv7d's review against another edition
5.0
An absolute banger! It has been a while since I have last read a book that smashes free-market myths as effectively as this one. A better world is possible than the status quo, and we have the knowledge and the capability to work towards it today.
tanemariacris's review
I find this approach to the conditions that were implemented in USSR to be a much more useful one than the sheer denial that there was anything reminiscent of socialism in them. Treating the Soviet Union as a case study showcasing the weaknesses and gaps in the "classic" model, which allowed for tragic results, and understanding the resulting reticence of especially people stemming from post-Soviet nations to engage with the possibility of a contemporary socialism is much more fruitful than simply shutting the door on that conversation altogether. Though it is also a more difficult endeavor and, as anything under the sun, it can be misappropriated to advance the very narratives it stands against. Take, for example, Orwell's Animal Farm - an Anti-Stalinist fable written by a vowed, self-proclaimed democratic socialist, that has been constantly used to argue against reforms Orwell himself would have supported. Cockshott and Cottrell have contributed here to a solid foundation for what ought to be an ongoing conversation. Even most of those structures and ideas that are proposed without being fully functional or the best solution to our current social or environmental ailments make for an interesting fuel (pun not intended) in rethinking the system.
rotorguy64's review
1.0
Towards a New Socialism was to be my introduction to socialism, a counterbalance to my at the time new laissez-faire views. Not only did it fail to convince me of socialism, it failed to convince me of any merits of socialism. And not only that, it left me feeling like I haven't actually learned anything about this school of thought. It's surprisingly informative in hindsight, after I've read [b:The Road to Serfdom|299215|The Road to Serfdom|Friedrich A. Hayek|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1327787673s/299215.jpg|217623] and [b:The Counter-Revolution of Science|1476342|The Counter-Revolution of Science|Friedrich A. Hayek|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1328768270s/1476342.jpg|1467371], but that's not exactly a point in its favor.
One thing that stuck out was that there was virtually zero discussion of anything normative. Equality and democracy are apparently seen as so obviously good that no discussion of them is necessary (even though some people - like me - see both as a scam). The same treatment is given to social justice (another scam), but not to actual justice, and freedom is only used in the sense of positive freedom, whereas negative freedom is not even mentioned, despite these two having been conceived as two sides of the same coin. If you expect an ethical treatise, something to explain the socialist mindset to you, look somewhere else. This book fails completely in this regard. But democracy and equality are important, don't you agree? No, I don't. Towards a New Socialism stands firmly in the tradition of books that are extremely convincing if you already agree with them, and if you don't, then you're a shitlord or something.
Granted, this book is primarily one on economics. So, how does it fare here? Well, not good. The three-page bibliography contains Marx, Lenin, Stalin (because nothing says "economist" like exporting grain during a famine), Keynes, but not Hayek, Rothbard, Friedman, Sowell, or Mises. The latter is mentioned in passing when the calculation-problem is addressed, but his fucking first name is omitted. And mind you, this book spends a good amount of pages on the calculation-problem, yet apparently, the authors only read secondary literature on the topic. Their solution to this problem is mostly to emulate the market, by bringing in pseudo-prices among other things - cheap imitations of the real thing, the thing that actually works and doesn't rest on supercomputers and bureaucrats trying to figure out what you need. The knowledge-problem, formulated by Hayek in [b:The Road to Serfdom|299215|The Road to Serfdom|Friedrich A. Hayek|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1327787673s/299215.jpg|217623], is something they haven't heard about at all. Notice a pattern yet?
What kills this book for me is the callousness with which the authors describe their plans on how to dissolve the traditional family and instead establish a society based on communes, which is really just their hatred of the individual taken to its logical extreme. Here is where Towards a New Socialism shows its true colors, as just another megalomaniac control-fantasy of talentless pseudo-intellectuals that have never left the confines of their Ivory Tower. Absolutely disgusting.
One thing that stuck out was that there was virtually zero discussion of anything normative. Equality and democracy are apparently seen as so obviously good that no discussion of them is necessary (even though some people - like me - see both as a scam). The same treatment is given to social justice (another scam), but not to actual justice, and freedom is only used in the sense of positive freedom, whereas negative freedom is not even mentioned, despite these two having been conceived as two sides of the same coin. If you expect an ethical treatise, something to explain the socialist mindset to you, look somewhere else. This book fails completely in this regard. But democracy and equality are important, don't you agree? No, I don't. Towards a New Socialism stands firmly in the tradition of books that are extremely convincing if you already agree with them, and if you don't, then you're a shitlord or something.
Granted, this book is primarily one on economics. So, how does it fare here? Well, not good. The three-page bibliography contains Marx, Lenin, Stalin (because nothing says "economist" like exporting grain during a famine), Keynes, but not Hayek, Rothbard, Friedman, Sowell, or Mises. The latter is mentioned in passing when the calculation-problem is addressed, but his fucking first name is omitted. And mind you, this book spends a good amount of pages on the calculation-problem, yet apparently, the authors only read secondary literature on the topic. Their solution to this problem is mostly to emulate the market, by bringing in pseudo-prices among other things - cheap imitations of the real thing, the thing that actually works and doesn't rest on supercomputers and bureaucrats trying to figure out what you need. The knowledge-problem, formulated by Hayek in [b:The Road to Serfdom|299215|The Road to Serfdom|Friedrich A. Hayek|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1327787673s/299215.jpg|217623], is something they haven't heard about at all. Notice a pattern yet?
What kills this book for me is the callousness with which the authors describe their plans on how to dissolve the traditional family and instead establish a society based on communes, which is really just their hatred of the individual taken to its logical extreme. Here is where Towards a New Socialism shows its true colors, as just another megalomaniac control-fantasy of talentless pseudo-intellectuals that have never left the confines of their Ivory Tower. Absolutely disgusting.
porcepot's review
4.0
Excellent reader on how socialist central planning could work even after the collapse of the Eastern Bloc. Tackles one of the biggest questions any socialist or anyone interested in economics faces. Moderately technical but not un-readable. Nonetheless, only 80-90% convincing - the argument in favour of central planning is limited on account of the author's approach which focuses mostly on the economics rather than politics and history. Some big concerns about central planning are brushed over.
blrobin2's review
4.0
A comprehensive attempt at writing out how a socialist economy could look in the 20th century. Being now in the 21st century, where we feel the pains of capitalism on people and the environment as strongly as ever, this book would need few updates. You should go into this book recognizing that this framework is not a set of minor revisions, but a complete overhaul of how a government would operate and how people would live within it. It is, in some ways, ideological and may feel impossible to implement in a country like the United States (the author is British and focuses on England). But idealism has always been at the heart of socialism, along with the belief that such widespread change is possible.
I do have questions and criticisms, mostly pertaining to the implementation details:
1. I believe the author is too confident in algorithms as the great mediators and managers of the economy. Algorithms are incredible in theory, but as with all software, are left to human hands to implement and therefore subject to human error.
2. The book does little to outright address the existence of people who cannot perform labor due to disability, limiting such provisioning to the elderly and children. That said, their framework can easily be adapted to accommodate them, and perhaps this is one area where the book could be updated for today.
3. How do we accurately report labor performed? In theory, we can adapt time cards and other methods used currently but all of those are subject to "fudging". I suppose there would be some oversight over this, but we don't get a good idea of what this looks like.
I imagine a more economically-minded person reading this may not share the same questions I do, and may see more wrong with its proposals. Overall, the book is a refreshing attempt to go beyond the theory where so much Leftist ideology exists and into the realm of possible implementations.
I do have questions and criticisms, mostly pertaining to the implementation details:
1. I believe the author is too confident in algorithms as the great mediators and managers of the economy. Algorithms are incredible in theory, but as with all software, are left to human hands to implement and therefore subject to human error.
2. The book does little to outright address the existence of people who cannot perform labor due to disability, limiting such provisioning to the elderly and children. That said, their framework can easily be adapted to accommodate them, and perhaps this is one area where the book could be updated for today.
3. How do we accurately report labor performed? In theory, we can adapt time cards and other methods used currently but all of those are subject to "fudging". I suppose there would be some oversight over this, but we don't get a good idea of what this looks like.
I imagine a more economically-minded person reading this may not share the same questions I do, and may see more wrong with its proposals. Overall, the book is a refreshing attempt to go beyond the theory where so much Leftist ideology exists and into the realm of possible implementations.
messagefromthedeep's review
5.0
Nur 3 Jahre nach dem katastrophalen Zusammenbruch der Sovietunion erschienen, hat dieses Buch mit seinen klaren Forderungen, Vorschlägen und Analysen eine immense Inspirationskraft. Was hilft besser gegen den sich anbahnenden Capitalist Realism als ein kohärentes und gut durchdachtes Modell für eine wahrhaft vernünftige Wirtschaft? Sollte mehr gelesen werden.
andreaschari's review against another edition
challenging
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
2.75