It seems that in the US definitions of words related to moving past (or even mitigating the harms of) capitalism all get mixed together. Some of this is just how language evolves over time, but it’s also a result of this being a topic subject to quite a bit of propaganda. On the right they will call any regulation they disagree with communism, and on the left you mention Bernie’s “democratic socialism” vs “socialized capitalism”. At this point if one is interested in slowing profit driven harm to people and the environment (where the clock is ticking) it may be best to destigmatize words like marxism, communism, and socialism as you will be called all of them anyway.
I’m not a fan of the more authoritarian aspects of the USSR or China, but I question the claim that it was obviously an inefficient economic system. Pre-communist China and USSR were both rather poor, nearly pre-industrial nations before their revolutions and both grew to become superpowers in a very short amount of time. All while being actively opposed by the west and in Russia’s case after losing a huge chunk of their population in WW2.
I’m also not convinced that the promise of “getting rich” motivates much innovation. Or if it does I suspect it’s less the wealth and more the escape from the anxiety that comes from wondering how your family will live under capitalism. Plenty of people contribute to open source software or choose careers in science and technology research with longer hours and a fraction of the pay as using the same skill set to design algorithms that get kids to look at more ads. Where markets might be more “efficient” is in incentivizing necessary, but unpopular jobs like cleaning a sewer; markets accomplish this via the threat of eviction, prison, and starvation if you were born in the wrong group.
There must be a better way. I don’t care what it’s called, I just hope we can sort it out before climate change makes life much worse.
It seems that in the US definitions of words related to moving past (or even mitigating the harms of) capitalism all get mixed together. Some of this is just how language evolves over time, but it’s also a result of this being a topic subject to quite a bit of propaganda. On the right they will call any regulation they disagree with communism, and on the left you mention Bernie’s “democratic socialism” vs “socialized capitalism”. At this point if one is interested in slowing profit driven harm to people and the environment (where the clock is ticking) it may be best to destigmatize words like marxism, communism, and socialism as you will be called all of them anyway.
I’m not a fan of the more authoritarian aspects of the USSR or China, but I question the claim that it was obviously an inefficient economic system. Pre-communist China and USSR were both rather poor, nearly pre-industrial nations before their revolutions and both grew to become superpowers in a very short amount of time. All while being actively opposed by the west and in Russia’s case after losing a huge chunk of their population in WW2.
I’m also not convinced that the promise of “getting rich” motivates much innovation. Or if it does I suspect it’s less the wealth and more the escape from the anxiety that comes from wondering how your family will live under capitalism. Plenty of people contribute to open source software or choose careers in science and technology research with longer hours and a fraction of the pay as using the same skill set to design algorithms that get kids to look at more ads. Where markets might be more “efficient” is in incentivizing necessary, but unpopular jobs like cleaning a sewer; markets accomplish this via the threat of eviction, prison, and starvation if you were born in the wrong group.
There must be a better way. I don’t care what it’s called, I just hope we can sort it out before climate change makes life much worse.