jlou

joined 1 year ago
[–] jlou@mastodon.social 1 points 3 months ago

Marx wouldn't have described an economy that uses markets as socialist

@leftism

[–] jlou@mastodon.social 20 points 3 months ago (5 children)

I'm a leftist as well. The paper argues that the non-democratic liberals are wrong about the implications of liberal principles. It even goes further and makes an argument that coherent liberalism must also oppose capitalism, and capitalism is inherently non-democratic. By the end, the paper argues that a democratic economy controlled by workers is the only kind of economic organization compatible with liberalism. Capitalist liberalism is poison because it is incoherent

@sneerclub

[–] jlou@mastodon.social -2 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (2 children)

Classical laborists and their intellectual descendants' case against capitalism boils down to the idea that the positive and negative results of production are the private property of the workers in the firm. When understood properly, the unique arguments they make are that we should abolish capitalism in the name of private property. The left should lean into this framing. It's hard to call private property supporters Marxists.

Socialism doesn't clearly evoke those examples to people

@leftism

[–] jlou@mastodon.social 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

All definitions are made up.

This definition captures the underlying notion.that
consensual democracy = self-government

Here is A. Chayes making a similar point:

“The shareholders were the electorate, the directors the legislature, enacting general policies and committing them to the officers for execution. Shareholder democracy, so-called, is misconceived because the shareholders are not the governed of the corporation whose consent must be sought.”

Robert Dahl had a similar understanding

[–] jlou@mastodon.social -4 points 3 months ago (4 children)

Proudhon referred to himself as a socialist in the 19th century sense. Most people don't have what Proudhon advocated in mind when they use the term, socialism, today. It is clearer to use a different word, and also helps the left avoid any unnecessary negative associations and connotations

@leftism

[–] jlou@mastodon.social 0 points 3 months ago (6 children)

Mutualism is not socialism as it has been defined in the 20th century @leftism

[–] jlou@mastodon.social 3 points 3 months ago

"We all declare for liberty; but in using the same word we do not all mean the same thing. With some the word liberty may mean for each man to do as he pleases with himself, and the product of his labor; while with others the same word may mean for some men to do as they please with other men, and the product of other men’s labor.” -- Abraham Lincoln

This quote captures the differing understandings and notions of liberty between these different political groups

@linux

[–] jlou@mastodon.social 1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (3 children)

Capitalism isn't democratic. Democracy is the mode of governance where control rights over an organization are assigned to those governed by or in it. In the capitalist firm, the workers are the ones governed by management, yet control rights lie with the employer

[–] jlou@mastodon.social 36 points 3 months ago (14 children)

Socialism vs capitalism is a false dichotomy. There are other alternatives like economic democracy or mutualism where all companies are democratic worker coops. There are other critics of capitalism besides Marx such as the classical laborists like Proudhon and their modern intellectual descendants like David Ellerman

@leftism

[–] jlou@mastodon.social 3 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

If you emphasize giving workers what they literally produce instead of its value, the contrast is even greater. With value, you are still emphasizing the pie metaphor, which capitalist economists invented to obfuscate the real issues. In terms of property rights to the produced outputs and liabilities for the used-up inputs, workers qua employees get 0% while employers qua employer get 100%. In the property theoretic terms, workers don't get the fruits of their labor at all
@humanities

[–] jlou@mastodon.social 2 points 3 months ago

This would be joint self-employment as in a worker coop

@asklemmy

[–] jlou@mastodon.social 1 points 3 months ago

I would argue that all employment contracts are terrible due to their violation of the principle that legal and de facto responsibility should match. De facto responsibility is de facto non-transferable, so there is no way for legal and de facto responsibility to match in an employment contract. Instead, workers should always be individually or jointly self-employed as in a worker coop

@asklemmy

 
 

The new astrology: by fetishising mathematical models, economists turned economics into a highly paid pseudoscience

https://aeon.co/essays/how-economists-rode-maths-to-become-our-era-s-astrologers

"‘If you get people to lower their shield, they’ll tell you it’s a big game they’re playing,’ he told me." "‘In economics..., if I’m trying to decide whether I’m going to write something favourable or unfavourable to bankers, well, if it’s favourable that might get me a dinner in Manhattan with movers and shakers,’ Pfleiderer said to me."

@general

 

Longtermism poses a real threat to humanity

https://www.newstatesman.com/ideas/2023/08/longtermism-threat-humanity

"AI researchers such as Timnit Gebru affirm that longtermism is everywhere in Silicon Valley. The current race to create advanced AI by companies like OpenAI and DeepMind is driven in part by the longtermist ideology. Longtermists believe that if we create a “friendly” AI, it will solve all our problems and usher in a utopia, but if the AI is “misaligned”, it will destroy humanity...."

@technology

 
 
 
 
 
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submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by jlou@mastodon.social to c/socialism@beehaw.org
 

Property is only Another Name for Monopoly

https://academic.oup.com/jla/article/9/1/51/3572441

This article presents a new critique of capitalist private property as a form of monopoly. While I disagree with some of the authors' other views, the common ownership mechanism discussed in the article is quite interesting from an anti-authoritarian anti-capitalist perspective. I would be curious to hear the thoughts of other anti-capitalists on the mechanism described

@socialism

 

Anarchists should rethink common vs private property
https://www.ellerman.org/rethinking-common-vs-private-property/
@anarchism

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