In order to allay this discontent, authorities must increase production of consumers' goods by imposing minimum production quotas, coupled with extreme penalties for noncompliance. In order to meet the quotas of consumers' goods, they must also "plan" the structure of production, implementing additional quotas for the necessary capital factors. Furthermore, in order to allocate these extremely scarce goods in a quasi-rational manner, the authorities must determine the relative prices of the various goods. As observed on p. 5.2:74, such a pricing system must reflect the central planners' subjective notions of equity and will have varying impacts on different individuals. Thus "equality"-based socialism, like Marx's "need"-based socialism, necessitates full-scale, centralized, forcibly imposed economic "planning." The quixotic notion of "voluntary" socialism or anarcho-socialism, popular among some utopian dreamers, is not practicable in a large society, although it may be realized within extremely small groups such as single families. Trends described on this page are highlighted in red below.     Next page
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