this post was submitted on 29 May 2024
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Communism is when China does anything... Especially capitalism!
The type of capitalism found in China is known as state capitalism and it's an unholy blend of central planning and free markets, with the government owning significant stakes in all key industries, exerting a massive control over both the economy and society as a whole using all of the methods used by previous Communist autocracies, only this time with far more technology.
The only way in which communism is inherently authoritarian is in that wealth must be forcibly taken from capitalists and landowners in order to help the masses.
Equating communism with authoritarianism, but not doing the same with capitalism, a system in which the owning class oppresses (to the point of homelessness and starvation) the working class, is simply ignorant.
There is oppression under this system as well, there are private prisons that lead directly to incarceration, there is gross inequality, there is global injustice (forced extraction of wealth and natural resources from foreign lands), there is climate injustice in which a tiny minority of the population is directly causing harm, suffering, and an increasing amount of climate refugees (to which they deny entry after making their homes unlivable).
but yes an economic system that puts the needs of the many above the lavish lifestyles of the few and which prefers cooperation to competition is inherently authoritarian and this one isn't. How many terrible capitalist countries can you name?
Capitalism only works in theory.
When wealth was taken from capitalists and landowners in the Soviet Union, it results in millions of poor people starving to death. (the rich people were worked to death; the poor people starved to death; there was a lot of death)
And yes, that is a very significant way of being authoritarian. Taking people’s property to redistribute is about as authoritarian as it gets.
Yes the God given law of capitalism dictates the only fair way that wealth can be distributed
I'm not a very bright person most the time and when an economy is being discussed that multiplies. But how is that a free market by any definition? Or am I completely misunderstanding what you're saying?
China is "communist" in the same way NK is "democratic". It's just branding.
Communism is when wealth disparity
Literally what half the comments here are saying lmao, like yes and the sky is green everyone knows this
Yea. They want it to be communism. But communism never worked.
Capitalism only works in theory in practice it's all homeless encampments, people going hungry, wealth inequality, gender inequality, race inequality, global inequality, climate disaster, war.
Capitalism has never worked
A balance between capitalism and socialism is what most countries are already using and has worked for a long time.
Communism is the one that only works in theory and anywhere it has been tried has quickly led to dictatorships or else it has fallen apart.
Edit: what most countries are using (not every country)
Social programs and social welfare aren't really balancing socialism with capitalism, the means of production is fully owned by capitalists and there is no democratization of it. Sure we have some coops but the vast majority of workplaces are dictatorships
It's more of a balance between how much is run by companies vs the regulations that the government imposes on those companies.
Pure capitalism doesn't really exist anywhere.
And what kind of companies are you working for where you feel that your workplace is a dictatorship? If I ever felt that way I would leave and work somewhere else.
Some Lords probably treat their subjects better than others true, at least we moved past serfdom.
Yes workplaces are communist dictatorships. There’s one key difference between a workplace that is a communist dictatorship and a country that is one: you’re at that workplace by your own consent and you can leave.
Communism is okay when people can choose it willingly and opt out any time. When that communist system is competing with other communist systems for resources.
Also, the means of production are largely owned by workers in the United States, given how many companies offer stock to their employees, and how many people work for themselves, and how many people use their own tools, cars, computers, and kitchens to earn money.
LLMs do better than this