A POSTCAPITALIST PARADIGM: THE COMMON GOOD OF ...

had a lot of construction faults, but it was one particular implementation
of planning, and the same goes for China. Other models are desirable
and possible, and above all will be necessary. It will be necessary to
cope with the huge and urgent ecological challenges. It will also be necessary
to meet the basic human needs for all the people on the planet
and to reduce the inequalities mentioned above. It will be desirable to
raise the cultural level and living standards for everyone.
That the market is unable to meet the basic needs can easily be illustrated
in two key sectors: food and health. The Food and Agricultural Organisation
(FAO) calculated that $24 billion a year in public investment,
associated with additional private investment would lead to a boost in
annual GDP of $120 billion as a result of longer and healthier lives. Conversely,
because of hunger poor countries lose $450 billion every year. 59
The investment is a modest 8% of the subsidy of farmers in the North
(which disrupts markets in the South and therefore causes hunger in
the South). This is a return of 500 per cent! Not to mention the millions
of lives that could be saved. And the amount to invest is very modest:
$24 bn is about 0.004% of the turnover of the derivatives market. But
still, the market function is not capable to implement the necessary investment.
The same story for health care. According to the World Health
Organisation an annual investment of $35 billion, or about 1% of the
health care spending of the US and Europe, would be enough to save
eight million lives a year and would give a yearly return of at least $360
billion. 60 On thing is for sure, the hundreds of millions of sick people on
this planet will not be cured by the invisible hand.
One could define economic planning as the capacity to impose democratically
decided objectives on the course of sustainable economic development.
61 There are different degrees and levels of planning. We
totally agree with Mészáros that planning must be put into practice in a
59 FAO, State of Food Insecurity in the World 2004, Rome 2004, p. 5.
60 UNDP, Human Development Report 2003, p. 98 & 101.
61 I borrow the definition from Cockshott and Cotrell, adding the word ‘sustainable’.
Cockshott P. & Cottrell A., Towards a New Socialism, Nottingham 1993, p. 65. My
ideas on planning are inspired by chapter 4-7 of that book.
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