First of all, you have a very small sample size, but more correctly it’s 100% correct to say that China has issues and problems. The idea that to call a system “Socialist” or to say that a party in power is genuinely working towards xyz aims means that the system doesn’t have problems it needs to work on is flawed. You gave the example of Huawei and AliExpress, both companies run for profit. These companies are going to have similar issues to companies in a Capitalist economy, though the safety nets in China are nicer than in many other countries and there is more accountability from the Workers than most Capitalist countries.
Secondly, as for Xi. No, I don’t blindly believe whatever a politician says, however your rant ended up just saying that being popular isn’t necessarily indicative of someone representing the interests of the people. I’d counter that by saying Trump also lost the popular vote twice, while Xi has maintained much higher popularity levels consistently. This doesn’t mean he’s infallible, but we can look at massive campaigns like the Poverty Eradication Campaign or the resurgance of cooperative firms in China, or the campaigns to lower price of medicine through renegotiation, and more to see why he may enioy the support he does.
As for your system not existing in reality, I am specifically questioning why you want that. There is no benefit to Private Ownership at very high levels of development, there is no reason to maintain them. Communism doesn’t exist yet because it is a predicted form of society based on analyzing trends in Mode of Production, specifically in Capitalism. What you are saying as “ideal” only seems possible as a step on the way there.
As for the NEP, there’s a difference between funneling all of profits in an economy with a large private sector towards social safety nets like you seem to be wanting (at which point public ownership entirely is more efficient) and the NEP. The Soviets, for example, had free healthcare (the first of its kind in the modern world) as early as 1919. They used markets and private ownership purely to build up industry before collectivizing, yet still protected their workers and still collectivized.
I have no genuine idea what you mean by “what rules did they set” to ensure this. They literally codified in law higher pay for more skilled or intense labor, and codified in law lower working hours for more dangerous labor at the same pay. This was a part of the USSR’s legal system, I genuinely don’t know what else you want to “ensure” that.
I have been explaining, and I haven’t thrown link after link at you or told you “you don’t understand Communism” like that other commenter implied. I pointed you to studying AES because if you genuinely want to see how some of your ideas would pan out in society, they are your closest bet, and I think you’d rather do your own research rather than take it all from one person’s words.
As for theorycrafting, it isn’t about “fun.” What you’re doing is Utopianism, trying to imagine a better society to create outright, rather than analyzing where society is heading and how we can best steer that. I told you already, Communists don’t really bother much with this, focusing instead on where we are heading based on what we have observed in reality.
The idea that to call a system “Socialist” or to say that a party in power is genuinely working towards xyz aims means that the system doesn’t have problems it needs to work on is flawed
Like capitalism, the problem is embedded in the way the system works, it is systemic. They definitely need to work on it, it needs more than a wash. even replacing the government would not work. Because the problem has never been who’s the one in control, but what safeguards are in place to ensure the control isn’t abused, the problem of capitalism isn’t the mere existence of private owners, but that there are no forms of control being put in place that prevent abuse… which is exactly the problem China has. If China finds a solution to solve this, I don’t see why it would not be applicable to a private ownership system.
I’d counter that by saying Trump also lost the popular vote twice
He’s popular now, though. Historically, most fascists have been overwhelmingly popular when they have won elections too. And they typically kept being popular thanks to their dirty manipulation tactics and unrestrained control over the state that places primary important on their own reputation…
Like I said, being popular is no proof of being honest / good.
As for your system not existing in reality, I am specifically questioning why you want that.
Ah, you should have asked that then.
There’s more than one reason:
I want to test whether it’s true that your ideal utopic Communism really works BECAUSE of the ban on private ownership, or does it only work (if it does, it has not been proven) regardless of it (or maybe even in spite of it). If it’s true that banning primary ownership is a necessary piece to achieve freedom for the Workers, then it should be impossible to postulate a position where a strong government enforces extreme regulation against private owners that forces them to become (in essence) executors of the will of the State, not much different than a well regulated official that is forced to behave.
I said it before, I’m a defender of the separation of power. I think it would be much more difficult to ensure people responsible get punished by their bad acts if they are friends of the ones doing the punishing. I’d say that feel that removing the figure of the independent person responsible of distribution (responsible as in, the one who would be scrutinized) to replace it with a person who is no longer independent might actually make it harder to ensure the scrutiny is actually effectively carried out.
there’s a difference between funneling all of profits in an economy with a large private sector towards social safety nets like you seem to be wanting (at which point public ownership entirely is more efficient)
Can you explain how is it more efficient?
I have no genuine idea what you mean by “what rules did they set” to ensure this
I think I can respond that in the other thread, since that’s the same question I was asking (over and over, in multiple parts of this thread), I hope this time you can understand what I mean.
What you’re doing is Utopianism, trying to imagine a better society to create outright, rather than analyzing where society is heading and how we can best steer that.
You are doing it backwards if you think you can steer without first having a goal/destination. Why do you want me to explain how would I steer the society if you don’t even seem to agree with me on what is the root of the problem that needs to be fixed?
Oh, didn’t get the notification for this.
First of all, you have a very small sample size, but more correctly it’s 100% correct to say that China has issues and problems. The idea that to call a system “Socialist” or to say that a party in power is genuinely working towards xyz aims means that the system doesn’t have problems it needs to work on is flawed. You gave the example of Huawei and AliExpress, both companies run for profit. These companies are going to have similar issues to companies in a Capitalist economy, though the safety nets in China are nicer than in many other countries and there is more accountability from the Workers than most Capitalist countries.
Secondly, as for Xi. No, I don’t blindly believe whatever a politician says, however your rant ended up just saying that being popular isn’t necessarily indicative of someone representing the interests of the people. I’d counter that by saying Trump also lost the popular vote twice, while Xi has maintained much higher popularity levels consistently. This doesn’t mean he’s infallible, but we can look at massive campaigns like the Poverty Eradication Campaign or the resurgance of cooperative firms in China, or the campaigns to lower price of medicine through renegotiation, and more to see why he may enioy the support he does.
As for your system not existing in reality, I am specifically questioning why you want that. There is no benefit to Private Ownership at very high levels of development, there is no reason to maintain them. Communism doesn’t exist yet because it is a predicted form of society based on analyzing trends in Mode of Production, specifically in Capitalism. What you are saying as “ideal” only seems possible as a step on the way there.
As for the NEP, there’s a difference between funneling all of profits in an economy with a large private sector towards social safety nets like you seem to be wanting (at which point public ownership entirely is more efficient) and the NEP. The Soviets, for example, had free healthcare (the first of its kind in the modern world) as early as 1919. They used markets and private ownership purely to build up industry before collectivizing, yet still protected their workers and still collectivized.
I have no genuine idea what you mean by “what rules did they set” to ensure this. They literally codified in law higher pay for more skilled or intense labor, and codified in law lower working hours for more dangerous labor at the same pay. This was a part of the USSR’s legal system, I genuinely don’t know what else you want to “ensure” that.
I have been explaining, and I haven’t thrown link after link at you or told you “you don’t understand Communism” like that other commenter implied. I pointed you to studying AES because if you genuinely want to see how some of your ideas would pan out in society, they are your closest bet, and I think you’d rather do your own research rather than take it all from one person’s words.
As for theorycrafting, it isn’t about “fun.” What you’re doing is Utopianism, trying to imagine a better society to create outright, rather than analyzing where society is heading and how we can best steer that. I told you already, Communists don’t really bother much with this, focusing instead on where we are heading based on what we have observed in reality.
Like capitalism, the problem is embedded in the way the system works, it is systemic. They definitely need to work on it, it needs more than a wash. even replacing the government would not work. Because the problem has never been who’s the one in control, but what safeguards are in place to ensure the control isn’t abused, the problem of capitalism isn’t the mere existence of private owners, but that there are no forms of control being put in place that prevent abuse… which is exactly the problem China has. If China finds a solution to solve this, I don’t see why it would not be applicable to a private ownership system.
He’s popular now, though. Historically, most fascists have been overwhelmingly popular when they have won elections too. And they typically kept being popular thanks to their dirty manipulation tactics and unrestrained control over the state that places primary important on their own reputation…
Like I said, being popular is no proof of being honest / good.
Ah, you should have asked that then.
There’s more than one reason:
I want to test whether it’s true that your ideal utopic Communism really works BECAUSE of the ban on private ownership, or does it only work (if it does, it has not been proven) regardless of it (or maybe even in spite of it). If it’s true that banning primary ownership is a necessary piece to achieve freedom for the Workers, then it should be impossible to postulate a position where a strong government enforces extreme regulation against private owners that forces them to become (in essence) executors of the will of the State, not much different than a well regulated official that is forced to behave.
I said it before, I’m a defender of the separation of power. I think it would be much more difficult to ensure people responsible get punished by their bad acts if they are friends of the ones doing the punishing. I’d say that feel that removing the figure of the independent person responsible of distribution (responsible as in, the one who would be scrutinized) to replace it with a person who is no longer independent might actually make it harder to ensure the scrutiny is actually effectively carried out.
Can you explain how is it more efficient?
I think I can respond that in the other thread, since that’s the same question I was asking (over and over, in multiple parts of this thread), I hope this time you can understand what I mean.
You are doing it backwards if you think you can steer without first having a goal/destination. Why do you want me to explain how would I steer the society if you don’t even seem to agree with me on what is the root of the problem that needs to be fixed?