Red Front
Gold Member
- Jul 7, 2022
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A government can be committed to producing and distributing everything its population consumes without markets or a private sector, but as Marx stated, material conditions may not allow it. Many socialist countries are economically under siege by the United States and its allies, especially countries like Cuba and Venezuela. Sanctions, embargoes, threats of war, actual acts of violence, and lack of technology, undermine the efforts of developing countries to implement a socialist system of production. The type of capitalism that exists now in places like China, Vietnam, and Cuba, is as you pointed out, highly regulated. It's not the typical "free market" laissez-faire capitalism often touted by neo-liberals as the ideal economy, it's rather a very limited form of market capitalism. Marx and Lenin recognized that socialism may have to go through a transition stage where capitalist production and property relations are gradually socialized and democratized, eventually fully transitioning into socialism when conditions permit.I certainly agree that goverment is more accountable to the public than the private sector because the private sector is only accountable to stock holders. However, I disagree with your point, that as production technology advances there comes a point where there's no practical need for a private sector. The history of governments that were committed to socialism tell a different story. Russia, China, and Cuba were each built on a financial foundation of socialism and each has turned to capitalism. In Cuba, the private sector ownership has gone from 8% to 22.% since 1981. Also Cuba is opening various parts of the economy, mainly tourism to foreign investors. China which began as a government totally committed to socialist has become a system of regulated capitalism . And Russia. the birthplace of socialist government is now a Capitalist Autocracy.
I noticed you recently joined USMB. I have found that on this board, a shorter post covering a single point is more likely to get responses than a long multiscreen post with multiple points.
I will attach two ebooks to this post discussing how the Soviet Union actually undermind its economy by trying to appease the United States in the hopes of ending the Cold War. The reforms or "perestroika", greatly contributed to its collapse.
With the advancement of technology, wage labor is significantly reduced and eventually eliminated. The more human beings are replaced with automated systems, robots, artificial intelligence, self-driving vehicles, atomic precision manufacturing/nanotech..etc, the more we will be forced to produce everything with a new bottom line and that is, meeting human need rather than profits (human greed). By around mid century I believe production will become so efficient and automated, that socialism will become the obvious solution to the "tech apocalypse", not UBI.
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