• UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    edit-2
    13 days ago

    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.

    • Frezik@lemmy.blahaj.zone
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      13 days ago

      Being “state owned” isn’t seizing the means of production. Workers largely remain alienated from the fruits of their labor.

      • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        13 days ago

        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.

        • Frezik@lemmy.blahaj.zone
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          13 days ago

          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.