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J Lou @mastodon.social

\#liberal #anticapitalism

An #EconomicDemocracy is a market economy where most firms are structured as #WorkerCoops.

\#liberalism \#coops #cooperatives

Posts 40
Comments 256
Neoliberal adaptation
  • There are ideologies that believe control rights over firms belong to the workers in those firms. In these ideologies, the control rights can't be given up or transferred even with consent from the workers in the firm i.e. are inalienable. Neoliberalism specifically endorses the alienability control rights over firms. The non-democratic nature of the firm under neoliberal capitalism creates a class used to democratically unaccountable power

  • Take it from a former banker: the budget is for ordinary people. The mega-rich look on and laugh
  • What do you mean by work in the statement, "Capitalism can work?"

    EDIT: Just to be clear, I am asking what normative criteria you are using to assess the system. There is no non-moral objective notion of a system working without some ethical goal in mind

  • The case for liberal anti-capitalism in the 21st century
  • Capitalism's defining institutions are

    1. The employer-employee contract
    2. Private ownership of the means of production
    3. Private property in land

    The alternative to capitalism I propose, Georgist economic democracy, abolishes 1 and 3. 2 continues formally but there is widespread collective ownership of the means of production. Markets continue to exist to help coordinate production and allocate resources. Many defenders of capitalism incorrectly conflate capitalism with markets @general

  • fruit of the poisoned cloaca
  • Whether there is a power imbalance between customer and provider is dependent on how competitive the market is. When providers have market power, consumers can form associations to collectively bargain down providers' prices.

    Is there an enshittification example without IP?
    Enshittification usually happens with monopolistic firms not competitive markets.

    What would you replace markets with specifically?

    Quadratic funding lets public goods be free. I can't see how it's extractive @memes

  • "Economic Democracy: arguments from the US" for workers' self-management and against the employer-employee contract

    "Economic Democracy: arguments from the US" for workers' self-management and against the employer-employee contract

    Economic democracy is a philosophy that shows that all workers have an inalienable right to workplace democracy/workers' self-management/worker coops. The employer-employee contract violates that right even if employment is fully voluntary. An inalienable right is a right that can't be given up or transferred even with consent

    https://youtu.be/E8mq9va5\_ZE?t=566

    @leftism

    0

    Capitalist Markets Aren’t “Free.” They’re Planned for Profit.

    Capitalist Markets Aren’t “Free.” They’re Planned for Profit.

    Neoliberalism was never about shrinking the state to unfetter markets and enhance human freedom. In her new book, Vulture Capitalism, Grace Blakeley argues that neoliberalism has always sought to wield state power to maximize profits for the rich.

    https://jacobin.com/2024/03/neoliberalism-markets-planning-vulture-capitalism/

    @solarpunk

    3

    Directly Valuing Animal Welfare in (Environmental) Economics

    Directly Valuing Animal Welfare in (Environmental) Economics

    https://hal.science/hal-02929260/document

    "Research in economics is anthropocentric. It only cares about the welfare of humans, and usually does not concern itself with animals. When it does, ... animals only have instrumental value for humans. Yet unlike water, trees or vegetables, and like humans, most animals have a brain and a nervous system. They can feel pain and pleasure, and many argue that their welfare should matter."

    @vegan

    0
    fruit of the poisoned cloaca
  • The only way incentives based on outcome work is when people produce directly for their own use. For cases where people produce for others, the profit motive helps coordinate people to produce. Power imbalances can be avoided by collectivizing means of production across multiple coops.

    Enshittification requires IP monopolies. Economic democracy shouldn't have IP monopolies. Instead, it should secure software freedom. Digital public goods should be funded through quadratic funding @memes

  • fruit of the poisoned cloaca
  • Why is the profit motive terrible in your view? What should we replace the profit motive with?

    What is the benefit to pro-market anti-capitalists to challenging that particular preconceived notion? It creates an unnecessary roadblock when pro-market anti-capitalists can just describe themselves as radically democratic liberals, who want to extend democracy into the workplace @memes

  • fruit of the poisoned cloaca
  • I want to convince leftists that there is no benefit to pro-market anti-capitalists referring to themselves as socialist. It is an unnecessary association that only comes with downsides @memes

  • fruit of the poisoned cloaca
  • It was a good question. I am limited in response length because I am on Mastodon.

    In terms of social dynamics of a stateless society, The Possibility of Cooperation by the game theorist Michael Taylor uses game theory to argue against the Hobbesian case for the state. Radical Markets by E. Glen Weyl covers how to do common ownership with minimal administration @memes

  • fruit of the poisoned cloaca
  • I know how leftists define it, but when communicating with non-leftists, it doesn't help in understanding the economic democracy position.

    1. Central planning with no markets whatsoever is extremely inefficient
    2. The existing proposals for central planning are authoritarian and don't allocate resources properly to new projects.

    The strongest critique of a system is that the ideology used to justify it, after mapping out its logical implications, is actually opposed to it @memes

  • fruit of the poisoned cloaca
  • When people think of socialism they think of central planning in an authoritarian government, this has nothing to do with economic democracy and is its opposite.

    I prefer the term economic democracy for the system I advocate.

    It's not just optics. The arguments for economic democracy are based on the liberal theory of inalienable rights. These arguments demonstrate that capitalism is illiberal and violates liberal principles @memes

  • fruit of the poisoned cloaca
  • I was describing a company to produce buses i.e. the actual vehicle. Not for driving buses. The alternative to what I describe as the problem with capitalism is to structure all firms as worker cooperatives. In a worker cooperative, the basic tenet of justice is satisfied i.e. legal and de facto responsibility match @memes

  • fruit of the poisoned cloaca
  • Capitalism inherently violates a basic tenet of justice. For example, consider a bus vehicle company, the employer owns 100% of the produced buses and owes 100% of liabilities for used-up inputs. The employer is solely legally responsible for the whole result of production. Workers are jointly de facto responsible for using up inputs to produce buses. The basic tenet of justice is that legal and de facto responsibility should match. There is clearly a mismatch here in capitalism @memes

  • fruit of the poisoned cloaca
  • Worker coops are firms that are democratically worker-controlled. Communes are democratic also.

    Unemployment would be less worrying due to the UBI. Worker coops are committed to their workers so have incentives to train them. Also, worker coops prefer to reduce pay during downturns rather than employment.

    Trade policy between communes would be set by free agreement. Quadratic funding helps resolve collective action problems such as for defense. Power concentration is severely limited @memes

  • fruit of the poisoned cloaca
  • I prefer Georgist economic democracy.

    1. All firms are structured as worker coops
    2. Land and natural resources are collectively owned with revenue derive from common ownership going out as a UBI
    3. Common pools of capital collectivized across multiple worker coops through a system of venture communes.
    4. Public goods and mutual aid institutions funded through some variant of quadratic funding

    @memes

  • fruit of the poisoned cloaca
  • Georgist economic democracy.

    1. All firms are structured as worker coops
    2. Land and natural resources are collectively owned with revenue derive from common ownership going out as a UBI
    3. Common pools of capital collectivized across multiple worker coops through a system of venture communes.
    4. Public goods and mutual aid institutions funded through some variant of quadratic funding

    @memes@slrpnk

  • Property in land - What are your thoughts on Georgist libertarianism?

    Property in land - What are your thoughts on Georgist libertarianism?

    The basic idea behind Georgism is that land and natural resources are not the fruits of anyone’s labor, so no one has a natural right to it. Georgism proposes based on this that collective ownership arrangements be applied to such resources. Geolibertarianism supports full private property rights in the products of labor.

    https://youtu.be/smi\_iIoKybg

    What are your thoughts on this approach to natural resources?

    @libertarian

    2
    Are Libsocs welcome here
  • What if your interpretation of the logical implication of private property rights is different? For example, one could take the view that tenet behind private property of getting the positive and negative fruits of your labor implies that firms must be worker coops. In this view, capitalism is ruled out by libertarian legal theory's prohibition on contracts that alienate responsibility for the results of one's actions.

    What about geolibertarians? @libertarian

  • The case for liberal anti-capitalism in the 21st century

    The case for liberal anti-capitalism in the 21st century

    https://aeon.co/essays/the-case-for-liberal-socialism-in-the-21st-century

    The most powerful critiques of capitalism are actually liberal critiques in that they appeal to the liberal principles that defenders of capitalism invoke, but show that capitalism does not in fact satisfy them even in the ideal case.

    @general

    2
    Freedom☭
  • The challenges you mention don't really refute the main arguments for worker coops, inalienable rights theory, even if they were unsolvable problems that couldn't be solved no matter what other changes were made. Economic democracy aims for workers to get the positive and negative fruits of their labor in property rights terms not value. This is based on the tenet that legal and de facto responsibility should match. Capitalist firms don't satisfy this basic tenet. They are thus illegitimate @196

  • "Zoë Hitzig | What is quadratic funding?" - A democratic mechanism that a postcapitalist society could use to allocate resources to public goods, so they're available to each according to need

    "Zoë Hitzig | What is quadratic funding?" - A democratic mechanism that a postcapitalist society could use to allocate resources to public goods, so they're available to each according to need

    https://youtu.be/xwY0UAk14Rk

    Quadratic funding is an allocation mechanism that allocates more resources to projects that are more popular than projects that are supported by well-resourced concentrated few. It has the potential to solve problems in campaign finance, journalism and FOSS

    @leftism

    0

    How capitalism violates the most boring and obvious principle of justice and treats people like things - "Inalienable Rights: Part I The Basic Argument"

    How capitalism violates the most boring and obvious principle of justice and treats people like things - "Inalienable Rights: Part I The Basic Argument"

    https://www.ellerman.org/inalienable-rights-part-i-the-basic-argument/

    Capitalism violates the principle that legal and de facto responsibility should match in the employer-employee contract.

    @aboringdystopia

    0

    Reclaiming Democratic Classical Liberalism

    Reclaiming Democratic Classical Liberalism

    https://www.ellerman.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Article-from-ReclaimingLiberalismEbook.pdf

    "[L]iberalism expresses a skepticism about government[s] being able to “do good” for people. Instead an important role of government is to ... maintain the conditions for people to be empowered and enabled to do good for themselves, for example, in establishing ... the private property prerequisites for the functioning of a market economy as emphasized in ... economic [thought] (e.g., Heyne et al. 2006, pp. 36–38)." @liberalism

    3

    What are your thoughts on Geolibertarianism? - The Power of Land: Georgism 101

    What are your thoughts on Geolibertarianism? - The Power of Land: Georgism 101

    https://youtu.be/smi\_iIoKybg

    Geolibertarianism is a form of Georgist libertarianism. The basic idea behind Georgism is that land and natural resources are not the fruits of anyone's labor, so no one has a natural right to it. Georgism proposes based on this that collective ownership arrangements be applied to such resources. Geolibertarianism supports full private property rights in the products of labor. @libertarianism

    2
    Philosophy @lemmy.ml J Lou @mastodon.social

    The 17th-Century Heretic We Could Really Use Now

    0
    United States | News & Politics @lemmy.ml J Lou @mastodon.social

    Green Card Backlog Costs Economy Trillions in Gains, Report Says

    Green Card Backlog Costs Economy Trillions in Gains, Report Says

    https://news.bloomberglaw.com/daily-labor-report/green-card-backlog-costs-economy-trillions-in-gains-report-says

    "Report finds US leaving $3.9 trillion in GDP growth on the table"

    @usa

    1

    "Inalienable Rights: Part I The Basic Argument" Against Today's System of Work and for Industrial Labor Democracy

    "Inalienable Rights: Part I The Basic Argument" Against Today's System of Work and for Industrial Labor Democracy

    https://www.ellerman.org/inalienable-rights-part-i-the-basic-argument/

    This article discusses how today's system of work treats employees as things rather than persons thus denying their humanity, and violating rights they have because of their personhood. As a first step, labor should be directed by those carrying it out

    @antiwork

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