Supply and demand

[Bob George]

Simple question, may have been asked before (I apologise if it has).

In a communist society, how is demand measured? How do communists equalise the quantity demanded by consumers, and the quantity supplied by producers?

[¿Que?]

I don't see how communism would affect the statistical tools people employ to measure demand and obtain a measure of how much of something to produce.

This to me seems like asking if truth would still be true under communism.

Then again, I think I see what you're getting at. Supposedly, the invisible hand of the market is going to level everything out and make sure people get enough of what they want. However, and although economics is not my forte, I am under the impression that overproduction is quite common in capitalism.

So I think the best answer to your question is one word: better.

[Bob George]

I don't see how communism would affect the statistical tools people employ to measure demand and obtain a measure of how much of something to produce.

So it'd be no different? There'd still be a price system?

Then again, I think I see what you're getting at. Supposedly, the invisible hand of the market is going to level everything out and make sure people get enough of what they want. However, and although economics is not my forte, I am under the impression that overproduction is quite common in capitalism.

Well this is an economic question. I'm wondering what mechanism are used under a communist system to measure supply and demand. See, there might be some overproduction under capitalism, but underproduction is what I'd be worried about under communism. Like in Soviet Russia (I know that was state-socialism or Communism, whereas most of you guys are for anarchist-communism or stateless communism) there was a real problem with supply which I would put down to the lack of any sort of measure like the price system.

The free market is really just a measure. That's the best way I've heard it described. It's a measure of how much people are willing to pay for goods and services and what goods and services they actually want, and how much workers are willing to work for to produce those goods and services etc. Without those measures, I have a hard time understanding how the communist system would work to produce enough of what everybody wants and needs.

[SocialismOrBarbarism]

Why would a money-price system be necessary for this? A rise in price due to supply exceeding demand simply indicates that consumption is higher than output. Why would this have to be reflected in monetary prices for us to recognize this? Modern technology allows tracking consumption and production in real time.

As far as the USSR, of course there was a price system, as well as a profit system for individual enterprises, which made artificial shortages beneficial to their managers.

[¿Que?]

So it'd be no different? There'd still be a price system?

Statistics would probably be more advanced. In a society where scientists are not employed in the service of capital, scientific advancements would probably occur at a faster rate.

Of course there would not be a price system. Is this how companies currently determine how much of some product to produce?

Well this is an economic question. I'm wondering what mechanism are used under a communist system to measure supply and demand. See, there might be some overproduction under capitalism, but underproduction is what I'd be worried about under communism. Like in Soviet Russia (I know that was state-socialism or Communism, whereas most of you guys are for anarchist-communism or stateless communism) there was a real problem with supply which I would put down to the lack of any sort of measure like the price system.

Your argument is that under communism there would be a lack of any sort of measure. What do you mean? If the needs of the people is what needs to be met, rather than the needs of capital, then wouldn't population qualify as a measure.

The free market is really just a measure. That's the best way I've heard it described. It's a measure of how much people are willing to pay for goods and services and what goods and services they actually want, and how much workers are willing to work for to produce those goods and services etc. Without those measures, I have a hard time understanding how the communist system would work to produce enough of what everybody wants and needs.

So the free market is a measure, like the price system. Or is the free market the same thing as the price system. Do you consider social democracy's highly regulated markets as the "free market". Because I'm fairly sure that they still make use of the price system.

Also, what SocialismorBarbarism said.

[Bob George]

So the free market is a measure, like the price system. Or is the free market the same thing as the price system. Do you consider social democracy's highly regulated markets as the "free market". Because I'm fairly sure that they still make use of the price system.

The very problem with highly regulated and taxes markets is that they distort these measures. It's like weighing yourself on the bathroom scales and letting your gut rest on the towel rack so that your full weight isn't taken by the scales and you get a reading that you like, rather than a reading reflecting your actual weight.

[RGacky3]

democracy.

[mikelepore]

In a communist society, how is demand measured? How do communists equalise the quantity demanded by consumers, and the quantity supplied by producers?

In any economic system, capitalist or communist or anything else, this part is always the same. A manufacturing site counts the units that get shipped out, and keeps making new units at the same rate that consumers keep taking them.