Email or username:

Password:

Forgot your password?
𝗖 𝗔 𝗧's posts Post Back to profile
Top-level
𝗖 𝗔 𝗧

@lindawoodrow @FisherPeter

If capitalism is to be understood as an economic system characterized by the private ownership of the means of production, profit motive, and marketplace competition, then we are indeed currently living in capitalism. We (workers) do not need capitalism; capitalism needs us. We can survive in a socialist society with collective ownership of the means of production built on cooperation instead of competition. The only thing we need from capitalism is for it to die.

5 Dec 2024 at 22:08 | Open on mastodon.social
6 comments
Elon Muksis
Linda Woodrow

@Radical_EgoCom @FisherPeter I think those terms are all classic economic theory, & mean something very different in classic theory to what we have now. We don't have anything like marketplace competition except perhaps in very small businesses. We have corporate ownership of most means of production, and both "corporate" and "means of production" signify different things to what they did in Adam Smith's time, & classic theory falls over when "profit" is is speculative, not surplus value. 1/2

6 Dec 2024 at 0:08 | Open on mastodon.social
Linda Woodrow

@Radical_EgoCom @FisherPeter "Corporate" is shells within shells financialised to the point where the ownership is derivatives of derivatives. "Means of production" gets wierd when applied to things like orbital space for satellites or attention (media) or the cultural heritage as digitalised, that AI is comandeering, or the limited atmospheric landfill space for greenhouse gases. And supply and demand theory gets wierd when people have so much crap that op shops won't take donations of it. 2/2

6 Dec 2024 at 0:13 | Open on mastodon.social
𝗖 𝗔 𝗧

@lindawoodrow @FisherPeter

There is nothing outdated or non-applicable about the definition of capitalism I gave. Private ownership of the means of production is still private ownership, whether it be by single individuals or corporations, the accumulation of profit is still the primary motivator in business, and while large corporations have cornered many markets and have made competition with them near impossible, these corporations still compete with each other and with... 1/2

6 Dec 2024 at 0:42 | Open on mastodon.social
𝗖 𝗔 𝗧

@lindawoodrow @FisherPeter

...corporations in other countries. Just because modern capitalism doesn't adhere to the specific version of capitalism that Adam Smith envisioned doesn't make it not capitalism. Capitalism comes in many different forms. 2/2

6 Dec 2024 at 0:43 | Open on mastodon.social
Alexandre Oliva
@Radical_EgoCom @lindawoodrow @bhasic ISTM that as capitalism entered the so-called imperialist phase, over a century ago, feudalism swallowed capitalism, and proletariat, petit bourgoise and even customers were turned into vassals. antitrust law held that movement in check for some time, but eventually corporate power grew and got concentrated enough that it could control governments that would otherwise enforce antitrust law. what we live under is neither capitalism nor feudalism, or it is both. it's a chimera with significant elements of both.
@Radical_EgoCom @lindawoodrow @bhasic ISTM that as capitalism entered the so-called imperialist phase, over a century ago, feudalism swallowed capitalism, and proletariat, petit bourgoise and even customers were turned into vassals. antitrust law held that movement in check for some time, but eventually corporate power grew and got concentrated enough that it could control governments that would otherwise enforce antitrust law. what we live under is neither capitalism nor feudalism, or it is both....
6 Dec 2024 at 9:09 | Open on gnusocial.jp
Go Up