To each according to his need...

[CartCollector]

Having an economy based on people's needs sounds great, but the question is, how do you quantify needs? How do you know whether it's more important that a certain person has a car as opposed to a house? Once we decide which is more needed, then we need to decide how much quality goes into the good that the person receives, and on and on and on. What is your solution?

[Crux]

Quantifying presupposes scarcity.

[CartCollector]

So you believe that we can, with our current technology, produce enough to meet the needs of everyone? Do you have any evidence that shows this?

[syndicat]

Scarcity is inevitable. There are only so many people to do work and only so many hours in the day. If we spend that time making X, we can't be spending that time making Z.

If we decided to build houses, the building materials and construction worker labor that goes into that can't go into building health clinics and schools.

Unless climate change totally wrecks our current capacities to get food out of the ground, we could presently feed the world's entire population.

but the problem with a "need" based ethic is, how do you decide what someone needs? who are you to decide what someone else needs?

[Lynx]

Food > shelter > clothing
Infrastructure > commodities
energy production > recycling > R+D

[CartCollector]

So lynx, what you propose is that everyone is assured a certain quantity of food, then a certain quantity of shelter, then a certain quantity of clothing, on and on down the list? And that, say, food production takes priority over shelter production (like if there was only one acre of land left and some people didn't have enough food it couldn't be used for housing, only food production). What does everyone else think of this?

[Tablo]

Scarcity in our society is largely artificial. We even burn crops to keep up market values while people are starving around the world. We have more than enough to easily sustain the current world population. There may be some issues if we continue to grow though.. that can be cured by educating women about birth control.

[SocialismOrBarbarism]

Besides any considerations of scarcity I'm not exactly sure why you wouldn't just produce things according to demand. It doesn't really make sense for some central authority to arbitrarily decide on how much of every good is to be made.

[CartCollector]

I'm not exactly sure why you wouldn't just produce things according to demand.

Tell me how this is any better or different from capitalism.

[SocialismOrBarbarism]

Tell me how this is any better or different from capitalism.

Well considering that we're talking about this in the context of a society with democratic control of the means of production I'd say it differs a lot.

[Ligeia]

Tell me how this is any better or different from capitalism.
Demand in capitalism is different from demand in ...say...communism.
Demand in capitalism arises if there are people who can buy X, if there are people who can't buy X, then they are not a good market to invest in,....
In communism demand wouldn't be about who can buy X or Y with money since money wouldn't exist in the first place, in the second place demand here means that people need or want X.
So demand in capitalism is based on profit, whereas demand in communism would be dictated by need and want.

[hammer&sickle]

Having an economy based on people's needs sounds great, but the question is, how do you quantify needs? ?

An economy based on need rather than the ability to pay is created by an objective situation not simply by people's subjective wants. When the productive forces have advanced to the point where you have production without human labor the circuit of capital is broken. When the working class cannot sell its labor..at any price..then the distribution of the necessities of life can only be based on need. You might call this demand if you like but it is demand without the ability to pay.