marukusuboy profile picture

marukusuboy

About Me

I'm an American living in Tokyo interested in socialism. My aim is to use this site to introduce some of the ideas of the World Socialist Movement (worldsocialism.org) to Japan by translating literature into Japanese. I will also include articles on Japan from World Socialist Movement publications, such as the monthly magazine Socialist Standard. More than anything, I would like to come into contact with Japanese people interested in socialism, particularly anyone with the English ability to help me out with translations into Japanese.

私は社会主義に関する興味を持つ、東京に住 むアメリカ人です。このページに、「世界社 会主義運動」(worldsocialism.org)という政治的だªæµã‚Œã®æ€æƒ³ã‚’、日本語で紹介したい。そしだ¦ã€æ—¥æœ¬ã«é–¢ã™ã‚‹è‹±èªžã®è¨˜äº‹ã‚‚載せます。何゠ˆã‚Šã‚‚ã€ã“ã®ãƒšãƒ¼ã‚¸ã«ã‚ˆã£ã¦ã€ç¤¾ä¼šä¸»ç¾©ã«é–¢å¿ ƒã‚’持つ日本人と話したいです。アメリカ人だ¨ã—ã¦ã€å’Œè¨³ã¯éžå¸¸ã«é›£ã—ã„ã‹ã‚‰ã€æ˜¯éžã€ç¤¾ä¼ šä¸»ç¾©ã®ã“ã¨ã‚’å‹‰å¼·ã—ãŸã„æ—¥æœ¬äººã®ç¿»è¨³è€…ã®æ‰ ‹ä¼ã„が欲しいです!よろしくお願いします〠‚

A World Without Money - 5 Questions

貨幣のない世界 ― 5問

1. Are socialists suggesting that we should do away with money and revert to barter?

社会主義者は、貨幣の変わりにバーター(物 々交換)に戻った方がいい、ということを主 張しているのか?

No, we are not. Both money and barter are forms of exchange. Exchange is only possible when there is private property. In a society in which all wealth is owned in common there will be no property to exchange and there will therefore be no need for money or barter. When you get dressed in the morning you do not sell your clothes to yourself, nor do you barter them for some other possession, for you cannot exchange that which is already yours. In socialist society there will be free access to all social wealth because men and women will commonly own the means of production and distribution.

いえ。バーターは、貨幣によって媒介された 取引と同様に、「交換」の一つの形態である 。交換ということを可能にするのは私的所有 である。すべての富が共有に所有されている 社会における、交換をする財産そのものは存 在しないから、貨幣とバーターの必然性もな くなる。朝、着替えるときに、人は自分の服 を自分に対して交換するわけはないし、その 服を他の物とバーターすることもない。とい うのは、すでに自分の物として存在する物を 交換することはできる訳はないから。それと 同様に、社会主義社会における、人々は共有 的に生産手段と所有するからこそ、彼らはす べての社会的富に大してフリーアクセス(自 由に受け取る)をすることはできる。

2. Without having to pay for goods and services will people take more than they need?

商品とサービスのために支払うことはないな ら、人々はそれを自分が必要とするレベル以 上にとるではないか?

Why should they? As long as there is enough wealth to provide for everyone (and the potentiality already exists), people in socialist society will take freely to satisfy their self-determined needs. There will be no need to take more than you want because tomorrow you will be able to go back and take more. Socialism will not come into being without conscious socialists and such people will appreciate the importance of reasonable co-operation. If, for example, there is a shortage of a particular resource in socialism, they will have to co-operatively and democratically ration that which is available. The so-called greedy man is an invention of capitalist anthropology: a worker is said to be greedy if he wants more than his wage packet can buy him.

それをする理由はない。すべての人々の要求 を満たせる富が存在するかぎり(その可能性 はすでにある)、社会主義の社会における人 々は必要とするもの以上をとることは意味が ない。というのは、明日も、明後日もそのも のを自由に受けるから。社会主義を実現する ために、意識的な社会主義者が必要し、その 人々は協力の重要ささを十分に理解する。例 えば、ある材料は足りなかったら、その人々 は協力的かつ民主主義的に利用できるものを 配給する。人間のいわゆる「どん欲な」性格 はブルジョア人類学の発明したことである。 その学者にとって、労働者は自らの賃金によ って買えるもの以上に欲しいなら、その労働 者は「どん欲」である。

3. Is the price system the best way of allocating resources?

資源を配分するために、価格に基づく仕組み は最適ではないか?

Look around and see. The world is abundant in resources, yet poverty is the lot of the majority. The buying and selling system, based on production for profit, is economically inefficient from the point of view of those who produce the wealth. Socialism means free access to all wealth and production solely for need. This will mean that in a socialist society bread will be produced simply so that people may eat it, and not for sale on the market with a view to profit.

回りを見てください。世界に資源が豊富にあ るにもかかわらず、大部分の人々は貧困の中 に生きる。富を生産する人々の観点から、利 潤のための生産に基づいている売買の制度は 、非合理的だ。社会主義は、その富へのフリ ーアクセスと使用が目的と知る生産を意味す る。つまり、社会主義における、パンは単に 人々の食品対象として生産される。そのパン 生産は、市場に売れて利潤を獲るための手段 ではない。

4. Without wages or salaries, who will do the dirty work?

賃金あるいは給料がなかったら、誰が汚い仕 事をするのか?

In society which can land men on the moon and fire missiles across the face of the earth to within inches of a target, the technology certainly exists to do away with much of the unpleasant labour of society. Instead of research into more and more sophisticated killing machines socialism will devote resources to improving productive efficiency from the point of view of both the wealth producer and the wealth consumer. Work in socialism will be based upon voluntary co-operation and not the coercion of the wages system. The division between work (enforced drudgery) and leisure (when your time is your own) will be ended by socialism.

月まで旅行すること、あるいは非常に正確に ミサイルを発射することができる社会は、多 くの不愉快な仕事を排除できる技術を持って いる。社会主義の社会の場合、人間を殺す機 械を開発する替わりに富を生産すると消費す る人々の観点から生産の効率性を改良するた めに社会のリソースを投入する。そして、社 会主義における労働は、賃金制のように強制 ではなく、自発的協力に基づく。だから、「 仕事」(強制的な退屈な労働)と「暇な時間 」(自分の時間)という区別は社会主義によ って終結する。

5. Instead of advocating a world without money, shouldn't socialists be campaigning for a fairer distribution of money?

貨幣のない世界を提唱することより、社会主 義者は貨幣のより平等的な配合を提唱する方 が良いではないか?

To expect "fairness" from an inherently unequal is a form of utopianism which has diverted the working class movement for far too long. Under capitalism wealth ownership is concentrated into the hands of a small minority of the world's population. These are the people who have plenty of money. Most people can only obtain money by selling their mental and physical energies to an employer for a price called a wage or salary. You will never get rich by working for money. The only way for the working class to get rich is by getting rid of the money system.

本質的に不平等制度に「平等」を期待するこ とはある種の空想的な考え方である。そして 、そのような考え方は、長年にわたって、労 働者階級の運動を迂回させてきた。資本主義 のもとで、富の所有は少数人の手にある。そ の人々のお金は溢れている。その他の人々は 、自らの知的と肉的の力を売ることによって のみお金を手に入り、その貨幣は「賃金」か 「給料」と呼ばれている。こうした労働によ って、決してお金持ちになれない。労働者は 、全体の貨幣性を廃止すること以外、「豊か 」になる道はない。

Steve Coleman

Socialist Standard
June 1981

My Blog

Resurgent Japan (1968 article)

Resurgent JapanFrom mythological archives comes the legend of the phoenix, a bird of rare and unseemly attainments. After a lengthy and variegated existence, a pervasive act of its own volition caused...
Posted by on Mon, 14 Jan 2008 20:05:00 GMT

Crisis for LDP

LDP Rule at an End?The Liberal Democratic Party, led by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, lost the majority it had held in the upper house (along with its coalition partner the New Komei Party), so that now ...
Posted by on Thu, 11 Oct 2007 00:09:00 GMT

Japanese election

Democracy for Daddies On Sunday, over here in Japan, there was a national election for the upper house of Parliament. That evening I was watching TV with my 5-year-old daughter as the results came ...
Posted by on Wed, 01 Aug 2007 17:23:00 GMT

corporate scandal

Meat the Press It's a familiar sight on the TV news in Japan. Four somber looking men are seated at a flimsy foldout table in the front of a non-descript conference room bathed in fluorescent light. T...
Posted by on Wed, 01 Aug 2007 17:21:00 GMT

Review of J. Crump's "Hatto Shuzo and Pure Anarchism"

Hatta Shuzo and Pure Anarchism in Interwar Japan. By John Crump. (Macmillan) It is a little known fact, brought out by John Crump in this ridiculously priced new book, that until they were crushed ...
Posted by on Tue, 08 May 2007 23:28:00 GMT

1904 article on women in Japan

Women workers in Japan (1904 article) It is quite a common thing to ask Socialists: "Are you for Russia or Japan?" To this question, as to many others which usually crop up when two cut-throat thie...
Posted by on Tue, 08 May 2007 22:18:00 GMT

Review of T. Oishi's

The Unknown Marx. By Takahisa Oishi. (Pluto Press) Actually, despite the title, some of this is old hat. Oishi goes through Marx to show that so-called "Soviet Marxism" had distorted his views; which ...
Posted by on Tue, 08 May 2007 22:11:00 GMT

Review of J. Crump's Book on Nikkeiren

John Crump: Nikkeiren and Japanese Capitalism (RoutledgeCurzon) Nikkeiren is the Japan Federation of Managers' Organisations, the rough equivalent of the Confederation of British Industry. Here forme...
Posted by on Tue, 08 May 2007 22:05:00 GMT

Leftwing Terrorism

Terrorism: A Means to a Dead End Far-left terrorist groups, such as the Weathermen in the United States and the Red Brigades in Italy generally emerged at the tail end of the 1960s with the beginning...
Posted by on Tue, 08 May 2007 18:05:00 GMT

New Prime Minister for Japan: business as usual

Koizumi's five and a half year reign as Prime Minister came to a voluntary end in September. He tossed the keys to the official residence to his protege Shinzo Abe after a summer farewell tour that in...
Posted by on Mon, 07 May 2007 19:15:00 GMT