• Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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    3 days ago

    Rather than Capital having supremacy over humanity, humans have supremacy over Capital. Capital is much like a dark god, it’s will is guessed at by Capitalists, and those best capable of serving its alien will are the ones that succeed in the anarchy of the Market. Over time, these priests of Capital become fewer in number and greater in power.

    Communism flips this on its head. By focusing on public ownership, central planning, and taking advantage of the productive forces previously built up via markets, humanity can bend Capital to its will. We have seen this in AES states, where healthcare is cheaper and yet high quality, literacy rates skyrocket, and production runs on plans and decision making for the whole of society.

    I have an introductory Marxist reading list if you want to take a look.

      • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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        3 days ago

        Ensured? None. Incentivized? By focusing on eliminating the profit motive and fulfilling the will of the whole of society, there is a much larger emphasis on meeting the needs of the most impoverished and destitute.

              • OurToothbrush@lemmy.ml
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                1 hour ago

                One of the most basic economic arguments of Marx’s Capital is that 1) firms compete for higher profit margins 2) it is easiest to reduce wages in order to increase margins 3) you only have to pay workers enough that they’re able to, as a whole, maintain your workforce (the available workforce in general can shrink though, especially as automation shrinks the needed size of the workforce)

                Throw in some accumulation by disposession theory(the need to proletarianize the population, separating them from ownership of their own means of subsistence) in order for capitalism to function, and you have good old social murder, the end result of a system designed for efficient accumulation without consideration for human suffering outside the practical consideration of stability.

                Socialism, which is designed to manage the needs of a population through democratic processes, does not have this issue, except in the context of fighting capitalism where accumulation needs to be prioritized to some extent, in order to defend their social project from covert and overt hostility by existing capitalist powers.

                I’ve cited Capital, you only really need the first dozen or so chapters to understand the primary argument. Marx provides detailed figures to cite his arguments. I would also suggest reading about accumulation by dispossession/primitive accumulation, social murder, and siege socialism.