I’m not sure if this is serious but China’s a textbook definition of a mixed economy and has been since at least the 80s.
Their utilities are all state owned enterprises. They have an enormous public sector for housing, education, health care, transportation, etc. Then the private sector handles consumer logistics and private lending and luxury goods and entertainment, which is how you get a guy like Jack Ma or Hui Ka Yan arrested for embezzlement and fraud from time to time.
Where? In a country with high quality of life, low cost of living, ample at-cost amenities, and a sub-60 retirement age? Is the material wealth of the nation distributed in an egalitarian manner Not Real Communism?
What then is Communism? Is Communism when everyone has a 401k full of private equities (worker ownership)? Is it when they all own the same number of Bitcoins? Does everyone just need their name on their company letterhead?
Marx would frown at confusing fictitious assets for material analysis.
Yeah, that’s not what I’m getting at in the least. You have socialism when the workers receive the full benefits of their labor. You have communism when society is organized around providing what you can, and taking what you need. On a mass scale, I don’t see this happening anywhere in the world, but it does exist in smaller groups.
Because you need to horde the technology in order to secure private financing that builds the industrial productive capacity.
Who else is going to cover the up front costs? The government? Fuck you, that’s Communism! You’re going to kill 100 Zillion people
But that would work imply China isn’t Communist…ahh, yes, I see your point.
I’m not sure if this is serious but China’s a textbook definition of a mixed economy and has been since at least the 80s.
Their utilities are all state owned enterprises. They have an enormous public sector for housing, education, health care, transportation, etc. Then the private sector handles consumer logistics and private lending and luxury goods and entertainment, which is how you get a guy like Jack Ma or Hui Ka Yan arrested for embezzlement and fraud from time to time.
Being “state owned” isn’t seizing the means of production. Workers largely remain alienated from the fruits of their labor.
Where? In a country with high quality of life, low cost of living, ample at-cost amenities, and a sub-60 retirement age? Is the material wealth of the nation distributed in an egalitarian manner Not Real Communism?
What then is Communism? Is Communism when everyone has a 401k full of private equities (worker ownership)? Is it when they all own the same number of Bitcoins? Does everyone just need their name on their company letterhead?
Marx would frown at confusing fictitious assets for material analysis.
Yeah, that’s not what I’m getting at in the least. You have socialism when the workers receive the full benefits of their labor. You have communism when society is organized around providing what you can, and taking what you need. On a mass scale, I don’t see this happening anywhere in the world, but it does exist in smaller groups.