Tag Archives: socialism

But here’s a simple fact which ought to illustrate, in a sense, the question you’ve asked: This is an extremely undemocratic arrangement. What do I mean? Well, the number of people that make all the key decisions in American corporations, and by that I mean deciding what to produce, deciding how, deciding what technology to use, deciding the physical geographic location—will it be produced in Cincinnati or in Shanghai, etc.—and finally, what to do with the profits that the labor of all the...

There are so many people out there who genuinely believe that financial plutocrats like Soros are communists, and that Wall Street-sponsored Hillary Clinton is a socialist. Many American self-proclaimed right-wingers seriously assert that the German Nazis were all socialists, simply because “Nazi” is short for ”Nationalsozialismus”, which translates as “National Socialism”. Therefore, they make a conclusion that the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany were ideologically the same. Sadly, this is...

On truth and truthiness."We have the ocean in our bucket. We built a special bucket to contain it. So get lost."Meanwhile, socialism rises.Occasional Links & CommentarySocialism or truth David F. Ruccio | Professor of Economics, University of Notre Dame

Good read. Relatively short and on point.RedFlagSocialism is back, with good reason Daniel Taylor  

Young people are turning to socialism, and Democratic Party politicians are adopting the term. But what is socialism? My own summary answer is that socialism is the socio-economic system that favors people and the environment as a whole over other factors and and political theory that prioritizes human rights.  This is in contrast to capitalism, which favors capital over other factors and accords highest priority to property rights. Doug Greene presents his view of a Marxist-Leninist...

Increasingly, however, academics and development practitioners are looking at a less visible and tangible obstacle – the capture of the State by economic and political elites. The extreme concentration of economic and political power reinforces the ability to unduly co-opt, corrupt and divert the democratic process, and influence the role of the State, perpetuating measures that reinforce privilege on the one hand and inequality and exclusion on the other. This elite capture is manifested...

...there is, if you like, a third way between utopian communism on the one hand and technocratic tweaks on the other. It begins from the idea that ten years of stagnant productivity might mean we are now at the phase of capitalism that Marx foresaw: At a certain stage of development, the material productive forces of society come into conflict with the existing relations of production or – this merely expresses the same thing in legal terms – with the property relations within the...

MMT economists advocate that the central government – the federal government in the U.S. – can and should employ every person who desires to work but cannot find work in the private sector at a living wage. This living wage, the MMT supporters point out, would function as a minimum wage, since no person would work for a private employer who offers a wage lower than the wage the government offers. Assuming such a reform could be implemented under the capitalist system, if your search for...

MR OnlineMarx and Metabolism: lost in translation? Ian Angus | editor of Climate and Capitalism MR OnlineOn the eve of Venezuela’s elections, the U.S. empire isn’t sitting idly by Editorial MR OnlineTen Marxist ideas that define the 21st century Sergio Alejandro Gómez EconospeakThe So-called Labour Fund Sandwichman Radical Political Economy Capitalism and the Expropriation of Nature: The Strategic Discourse of Ecosocialism John Bellamy FosterNaked Capitalism To Reform Capitalism,...

Must-read. What we have there, then, are two different conceptions of a JG. On the one hand, it might be a policy which helps capitalism function better (Keynes). But on the other, it might be a form of transitional demand – a policy which whilst fulfilling human needs is one that cannot actually be sustainably adopted by capitalism and is instead a stepping stone towards socialism (Marx). I’m honestly not sure which it is. I would not put it in terms of capitalism and socialism but...