• AItoothbrush@lemmy.zip
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    8 months ago

    Still think something between communism and capitalism would be the best. Both show a lot of problems but both have benefits. A well regulated and equal competition with linear growth(not like capitalism with its exponential growth that produces musks and bezos’) sounds right to me. I think UBI would be exploited so just give them the basics in food, shelter, internet access, etc. But of course in the hellscape called modern politics everyone has to be an extremist so only hardcore capitalism, hardcore communism, genocide, etc are represented.

    • agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works
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      8 months ago

      Market economies are actually pretty great for a lot of things. The problems we have in capitalism are 1. the capitalist class, who make their living without contributing anything by min-maxing wages and prices, and 2. the privatization of necessities.

      1. A market economy for non-essentials would work splendidly so long as the income of each business was distributed to the people who actually did the work. The problem is non-working shareholders. Every worker should be a shareholder, every shareholder should be a worker. Market socialism is the way.

      2. Market economies cannot work efficiently for essentials. If the alternative to a purchase is death or serious injury, it ceases to be a voluntary purchase, the downward pressure of abstinence vanishes, and prices skyrocket. We’ve seen this in healthcare and housing. We need a public option for both.

      • azertyfun@sh.itjust.works
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        8 months ago

        https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_socialism

        There’s also a lot to be said about financial norms and systems, for instance regardless of the organization of labor the way we measure GDP is fundamentally a very flawed and arbitrary approximation of “wealth” yet it is the driver behind so many political decisions. My (admittedly unqualified) understanding is thst we could significantly improve quality of life and market efficiency by addressing some of these flaws.

        • Cowbee [he/him]@lemmy.ml
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          8 months ago

          Market Socialism would be a great improvement in stability and quality of life, but it wouldn’t solve enshittification outright, because the profit motive is still there. Ideally that would be phased out.

          • agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works
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            8 months ago

            Every improvement is incremental, a stable system is developed by individual steps in the right direction. Overly ambitious changes tend to regress back to the last point of stability.

      • _NoName_@lemmy.ml
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        8 months ago

        I think if we can steer this burning trash pile into a regulated coop-based economy, with a star-based voting system (I’d settle for ranked choice at this point), whose economy isn’t propped up by the cheap exploitation of developing foreign nations, I’ll be much happier. While we’re at it, solving homelessness and developing more sustainable infrastructures would be great.

    • JasonDJ@lemmy.zip
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      8 months ago

      Capitalism is very clearly not a one-size-fits-all solution…but if there’s one thing capitalism hates, it’s competition.

    • ComradeSharkfucker@lemmy.ml
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      8 months ago

      capitalism corrupts

      Also there’s nothing inherently wrong with extreme ideology as a concept. It’s only a call for radical change to the current social order. Liberalism which is to say our modern “democratic capitalist” structure would have been considered extremism during feudal times.

      The extremist boogie man is a lie peddled by those who benefit from the status quo to insure those who don’t are too scared to change it

        • ComradeSharkfucker@lemmy.ml
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          8 months ago

          The problem is that some of them don’t have to wait for society to collapse, sometimes society is destined to decay into a specific form. The final stage of capitalism is fascism

          • aidan@lemmy.world
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            8 months ago

            Yeah no, just because a socialist philosopher said it doesn’t make it true. Every economic system will eventually collapse for some reason, but the reasons for the collapse and the circumstances matter much more for predicting the future after the collapse than the system that collapsed. If you don’t believe that look at the many ways societies changed when feudalism collapsed.

            • ComradeSharkfucker@lemmy.ml
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              8 months ago

              Marxist philosophy isn’t just a prediction of what will be it’s also a analysis of how we ended up where we are and where we are headed. If you’re interested in learning about how Marx processed the world it’s worth reading into dialectical materialism. Marxism is much more complex than a simple capitalism eventually fails and socialism comes next.

              In short, dialectical materialism is a philosophy that emphasizes the effects of material conditions and opposing interests on social relations. It is not specifically an economic philosophy but it is a very useful toolset for understanding the intricacies of socioeconomics. It also suggests that the best way to resolve contradictions is to restructure society so that those contradictions are eliminated. While that last bit sounds really obvious there’s been a lot of fighting about it, I’d elaborate but Hegelian dialectics is fucking gibberish if you aren’t familiar with the terminology.

              So basically yeah some guy saying something doesn’t make it true but it’s worth checking when that guy has had his work holds up after being scrutinized and expanded upon for 2 centuries

              Some of the og stuff

              • aidan@lemmy.world
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                8 months ago

                Yeah no, Marx’s predictions were wrong. The most obvious one is he thought the workers revolutions would come from industrialized nations, that was completely wrong. But, with many of his other claims, those who support his ideology will twist any event happening to fit their narrative, just as a christian may twist any event into fulfilling a biblical prophecy.

                • ComradeSharkfucker@lemmy.ml
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                  8 months ago

                  Oh fuck I forgot, Marx did get one thing wrong. I guess the entire philosophical and logical scientific analysis developed by 100s of scholars is just trash, my mistake

                  • aidan@lemmy.world
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                    8 months ago

                    Where did I say that? I did say he wasn’t a scry, he had no peer reviewed studies. He cherry picked history to interpret what he wanted to. That isn’t “scientific” socialism.

      • Cowbee [he/him]@lemmy.ml
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        8 months ago

        Market Socialism is a great common sense first step, but it leaves enshittification because it keeps the profit motive. Ideally the profit motive should be phased out.

        • areyouevenreal@lemm.ee
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          8 months ago

          I don’t think it’s a perfect system, however there are easy ways to prevent this problem. You simply make either the customers or the government one of the parties holding shares of the companies. That way the customers also get to vote on decisions, or the government on behalf of the whole society.

          • Cowbee [he/him]@lemmy.ml
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            8 months ago

            I feel like that’s just a less efficient non-market form of Socialism, at that point it might make more sense to just fully socialize.

            • areyouevenreal@lemm.ee
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              8 months ago

              Fully socialize? Socialist market economy is a true socialist system already. You can’t make it more socialist. Your confusing communism with socialism.

              • Cowbee [he/him]@lemmy.ml
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                8 months ago

                I’m aware that it’s fully anticapitalist, but full Socialism would imply collective ownership of the Means of Production, not just ownership at an entity level.

                Communism would also get rid of the state, so I’m not quite referring to Communism in this instance.

                • areyouevenreal@lemm.ee
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                  8 months ago

                  Your confusing Leninism for socialism. Not all socialism even requires a state never mind state ownership.

                  • Cowbee [he/him]@lemmy.ml
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                    8 months ago

                    I’m not, and I understand. I think you’re confusing my point, I think having unequal ownership among a collective of people is less efficient for Socialism.

      • throwwyacc@lemmynsfw.com
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        8 months ago

        Isn’t market socialism literally just a form of capitalism? Like if you still have markets and a profit incentive then you’re not really socialist

        Not saying that’s bad, just thinking really it has always seemed to me like capitalism with a strong social safety net. Which to me seems ideal, just want to know if I’m missing something?

        • areyouevenreal@lemm.ee
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          8 months ago

          I think you’re confusing social democracy with market socialism.

          In market socialism the working class owns the businesses they work for, possibly in conjunction with the government or their customers. There are no people who became shareholders by buying shares, and starting a business doesn’t mean you get to own all of it. It’s essentially a society where all businesses are worker co-ops.

          It has nothing to do with a social safety net. In practice one would probably exist anyway, but it’s not a strict requirement of this sort of system like it is in social democracy. Technically you wouldn’t have to have free universal healthcare either.

          It helps to know that the definition of socialism I am using is based on the marxist one: a society where the workers own the means of production.

          Edit: Profit still exists in this system but it’s shared more or less equally between the workers of that business. This means workers actually have a concrete incentive to work well, not just the vague possibility of a promotion. It also means you will probably see less short term profit making and less overwork hopefully.

          • J Lou@mastodon.social
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            8 months ago

            Market postcapitalism with worker coops doesn’t mean the workers own the means of production. That idea of what postcapitalism looks like is Marxist baggage that needs to move into the dustbin of intellectual history. A worker coop can, for example, lease means of production from another worker coop or individual without violating the workers’ inalienable rights to workplace democracy or to get the fruits of their labor @lemmyshitpost

            • areyouevenreal@lemm.ee
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              8 months ago

              What idea needs throwing in the dustbin? The “workers own the means of production” part? What exactly is wrong with that idea?

              • J Lou@mastodon.social
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                8 months ago

                There is no reason why only workers should own the means of production nor why the means of production a firm uses must be owned by the workers of the same firm. Leasing out means of production to other firms is a perfectly valid way for worker coops to exchange products of labor. What is illegitimate is the employment contract as it violates inalienable rights. There are distributive justice and efficiency arguments for common ownership of capital, but that includes non-workers

                • areyouevenreal@lemm.ee
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                  8 months ago

                  Aren’t workers not owning means of production the reason surplus value can be extracted from them? Workers owning means of production is the definition of socialism for a reason. How can you guarantee the workers won’t be exploited without this?

                  • J Lou@mastodon.social
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                    8 months ago

                    The workers aren’t exploited in a worker coop. The workers jointly appropriate the positive and negative fruits of their labor. The workers don’t create the product ex nihilo they use up inputs (e.g. the services of capital). Paying lease is satisfaction of liabilities for using up capital services. Leasing out labor’s product allows workers to sell a part of the product’s services rather than sell the entire product. The employment contract gives the employer the product @lemmyshitpost

          • throwwyacc@lemmynsfw.com
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            8 months ago

            How do you get your initial capital to start the co-op? Like you can’t have investors, so is every worker required to buy in the the initial venture?

            By the way you are entirely free to structure companies this way under a social democracy

            • J Lou@mastodon.social
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              8 months ago

              There can be investors in market-based postcapitalist society. They just can’t hold voting shares, so they hold non-voting preferred stock.

              Freedom to structure one’s own company as a worker coop doesn’t undo the systematic violations of workers’ inalienable rights in all the other capitalist firms. The only way to fix that would be turn those firms into worker coops as well

              • throwwyacc@lemmynsfw.com
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                8 months ago

                See that isn’t very consistent is it? If you hold non voting stock you can’t vote on company decisions. But the company does now need to pay you a dividend, which according to you would be immoral as it would mean a third party is profiting from their labour correct?

                • J Lou@mastodon.social
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                  8 months ago

                  The problem isn’t the fact that the investors get some value. It is that the employer gets sole property right to the produced outputs and holds all the liabilities for the used-up inputs despite the workers’ joint de facto responsibility for using up the inputs to produce the outputs. This mismatch violates the tenet that legal and de facto responsibility should match. Worker don’t create output ex nihilo. They use up inputs. Dividends help satisfy those input liabilities @lemmyshitpost

            • areyouevenreal@lemm.ee
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              8 months ago

              By the way you are entirely free to structure companies this way under a social democracy

              You can set that up in any capitalist society, not just social democracy. It even happens in the US. That’s one of the major advantages of worker co-ops. It’s not true socialism though unless every business is run that way. I don’t really want social democracy. I want real socialism.

              As for funding I am not sure. Real worker co-ops must get funding from somewhere I would look into that. In a full market socialist economy the government could have a role in that. After all the current scheme of needing Capital to start a business isn’t fair at all.

              • throwwyacc@lemmynsfw.com
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                8 months ago

                Right, but why do you require every person in the country to work under a co-op? Is it not enough to let them choose?

                In your socialist society if a group of people agreed that they would like to set up businesses under a different model what would you do?

                And further, if you’re calling for an enormous change to the way we structure our economy then shouldn’t you be able to articulate how that system will work?

                • areyouevenreal@lemm.ee
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                  8 months ago

                  Right, but why do you require every person in the country to work under a co-op? Is it not enough to let them choose?

                  Look around you my guy. Capitalism doesn’t work. Most people who have the money needed to start or invest in a business are only in it to make themselves richer and to exploit others. My system prevents all of that.

                  In your socialist society if a group of people agreed that they would like to set up businesses under a different model what would you do?

                  I imagine the same thing we do now with people who have illegal businesses or businesses that go against regulations.

                  And further, if you’re calling for an enormous change to the way we structure our economy then shouldn’t you be able to articulate how that system will work?

                  You have never talked to marxists before have you? They don’t even know what economic system they want to use most of the time, because they don’t consider that detail to be important and think we can figure it out after or during the revolution. If I started asking them these questions they probably wouldn’t give me a straight answer and it would probably turn into an argument.

                  Meanwhile I am missing a couple of small details. Ones you can find yourself if you are willing to do more research than I have.

                  • throwwyacc@lemmynsfw.com
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                    8 months ago

                    That is a wholly unsatisfactory response

                    Firstly capitalism does work, it is extremely efficient at what it does which is allocating capital, which I’ve never heard of a good alternative. Central planning seems pretty trash as an alternative example But where “capitalism” falls over isn’t to do with it at all. Capitalism is an economic system, it doesn’t dictate anything about how we setup things like welfare or even ubi if you want. Look at Europe, seems pretty chill to me in a lot of countries that are capitalist

                    Right so you would make any other structure of company illegal. I don’t like that particularly, but from your moral system I get it. But then we probably have a fundamental disagreement there that can’t be resolved easily

                    What really annoys me about socialists/communists is you always want to handwave your bullshit system. You don’t even know how to start a business under your system but want to advocate for it! Being better than a moronic Marxist in this respect doesn’t excuse you of understanding what your system entails Also please don’t tell me to do my own research on your proposed system, you should be able to explain if you want entire countries to switch economic models

                • J Lou@mastodon.social
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                  8 months ago

                  The requirement that all firms be worker coops is to protect workers’ inalienable rights to democracy and to get the positive and negative fruits of your labor. An inalienable right is a right that cannot be given up or transferred even with consent. These workers’ inalienable rights flow from the tenet that legal and de facto responsibility should match. A group of people agreeing to it is not sufficient for validity because responsibility can’t be transferred even with consent

      • aidan@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        Georgism isn’t really anywhere near socialism. The only thing George recognized is that land ownership isn’t a real market. Other than that his policies would lead to probably less regulation than in most modern “capitalist” countries.