Christopher, this article by William Greider is quite a mouthful. If I read him correctly, he is saying the following:

1. Government will abolish poverty via fiat by harnessing the entire economy through central planning and coercion to give us economic "equality;"

2. Because we clearly are going to hamstring part of the productive process (that process that produces goods that Greider believes are "unnecessary"), government is going to replace crass material goods with spiritual goods.

Who decides? Well, I will let you in on a secret: it ain't us. No, the people in political power will make those decisions, as folks like Greider really know what is best for everyone else. Indeed, this is nothing more than another totalitarian scheme written in the "Happy Way" language.