Richard Wolff on BRICS vs G7, US vs China, Israel vs the Middle East

[What Would Jesus Do?]

Good stuff

 

[seminole97]

For Wolff, there must be three components for a true socialist government to exist: nationalized property to replace private property, national planning to replace markets, and for the laborers to appropriate the surpluses of their work. In private capitalism, none of these exist. In state regulated private capitalism, there are combinations of state and private property, a mix between markets and planning and the appropriation of surplus capital still mainly by non-laborers. He argues that all countries that claim to be socialist or communist implement the first two components, but neglect the third. The result: state capitalism. Property is nationalized and economic planning is instituted, but laborers still do not control and direct the profits of their work. Instead of CEO’s or managers, the surpluses are directed by state officials. Thus, all supposedly socialist countries were really just various methods of capitalism.


Lulz

You can't have capitalism without free markets, which means private property and individual decision making (not central planning).

'Surpluses directed by state officials' is central planning, it isn't some method of capitalism.

If laborers could appropriate the surplus of their work, then that would be private property.

Which you can't have under central planning, the state controls the resources.

Communism is an unworkable contradiction, it's why the Chinese told the Cubans they oughta ditch it.