User talk:JohnFitzpatrick

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Welcome to the Wikipedia, JohnFitzpatrick! And thanks for your adding a link to the Participatory economics article...

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Best of luck, JohnFitzpatrick, and have fun! Ombudsman 16:55, 22 July 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Appreciate your answers in Talk:Participatory economics

I asked most of those questions many months ago. But I'm too lazy/apathetic/shy to contact the parecon people directly.

Anyway, as a curious skeptic, I look forward to more of your answers. Hopefully, some of the answers can be fleshed out and moved to the main article -- especially if we can cite some sources.

Also, I'd like to flesh out some of the concern I have about parecon. I am open to the idea that many people might benefit from parecon but I oppose the idea that everyone should be coerced into adopting parecon. While reading part of Moving Forward: Program for a Participatory Economy, I was disappointed when Michael Albert stated his goal of wiping out the marketplace. Personally, I can imagine a world where parecon and the marketplace can complement each other.

I dislike capitalism's frequent erosion of cooperative commons but, on the other hand, I reject the notion that markets must be entired wiped out. I grew up on a farm and we sold our produce on a farmer's market; Albert's utter rejection of the market makes me think of the coercive collectivization of Soviet agriculture under Stalin.

WpZurp 02:28, 1 August 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Have you added Talk:Participatory economics to your watchlist? If not, I have added some comments to parecon and made additional requests for feedback at [1]. WpZurp 05:49, 1 August 2005 (UTC)[reply]