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The moral "high ground" of Capitalism (lemmy.ml)
submitted 5 months ago by to c/memes@lemmy.ml
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[–] 11 points 5 months ago (4 children)

This is a bit silly. The famine in China was largely a result of natural disasters, the communists ended famine in a region that had them historically. Further, socialist systems are comprehensively democratic, and cannot be led by a single person unilaterally. Even with party leaders and whatnot, socialist governance is collective.

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  • [+] -7 points 5 months ago* (3 children)

    Are there any examples of democratic communism?

    They both have one function and that is to spread resources best. Capitalism let the free market decide how much something is worth. Your labor is decided by how much someone will pay and you decide what you want to eat for dinner with the free market and decide what livestock or plants get planted in the following year based on what people will buy.

    Communism relies on a central planner. Someone that could be hundreds of miles away from you. You think they will know what resources you need? What if that person was Donald Trump deciding for you?

    Btw, communism and socialism are was more protective. So low immigration, less tolerance.

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  • [–] 18 points 5 months ago (2 children)

    All socialist systems thus far have been democratic.

    Regarding capitalism, you're referring to an idyllic, fantasy version of capitalism. In the real world, capitalists already control the means of production and distribution, so workers sell the only commodity they can: their labor-power. Since the capitalists hold all of the cards, the price of labor-power is pressed downward towards the customary social price of reproduction, ie as little as possible to prevent revolt while still taking up a full day of labor most days a week to survive.

    As for socialism, central planning involves local planning as well. The idea of a single planner hand-planning an entire economy is a farce designed to strawman socialism. In reality, economic planning is already heavily employed in businesses like Amazon, who predict demand and plan production accordingly. Central planning isn't some pie in the sky idea, it worked in the USSR very well, and continues to work in socialist countries today.

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  • [–] -4 points 5 months ago (1 child)

    The three communist/socialist countries I know is China, Vietnam and North Korea and the general public do NOT elect their president. They do vote for local representatives but don’t vote for president. It’s like voting for a city board member who then vote for city mayor who then votes for state governor who then gets to vote for president.

    Labor is not the workers only commodity. Workers in USA own land, they own 401ks, they have private businesses that employ others. Which btw, you only lease land from the government in China. You do not own land. Also, China only saw prosperity after adopting capitalist style business models.

    Who are the capitalist you’re talking about? Everyone in USA is a capitalist when we go grocery shopping or buy a new car. We the people decide market price.

    Explain Moa, explain Kim Jung un.

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  • [–] 13 points 5 months ago*

    The DPRK actually does have direct elections at all levels for government positions, but regardless, democracy is not "has direct elections," it's rule by the majority.

    As for "workers" owning capital, this makes them petite bourgeoisie, in essence petty capitalists. The US Empire is an imperialist country, and so is able to bribe the working classes into siding with capital using the spoils from the global south. Having a business and paying others to work for you, without needing to labor yourself, is being a capitalist, not a worker.

    As for the US, going to the store does not make you a capitalist, it makes you a consumer. The people do not decide the price, what decides the price of commodities is the socially necessary labor time going into the commodity, as well as factors like rent, supply and demand, and more that cause price to fluctuate around their values. People do not just think "I will pay 1 dollar for a car" and get it, cost of production is what has the biggest impact on price.

    As for leasing land in China, this is why 90% of people own their home there.

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