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Well the problem with fascism is you eventually run out of other peoples children so…
The problem with Capitalism is eventually the imperial core runs out of third world labour and resources to pillage
Never mind that money ultimately belongs to the state anyway, and is only worth anything because if you don’t pay the state then it will do Bad Things™ to you.
Not only is it impossible to “run out” of a currency that you control, it’s also not “other people’s”. So the only correct term in the whole phrase is “money”.
I appreciate the critique, but no, money is not
only worth anything because if you don’t pay the state then it will do Bad Things™ to you.
That’s “modern” (from 1905) monetary theory (MMT), which ignores that money is a commodity and can and did historically exist before states.
Modern states are clearly crucial to the reproduction of money and the system in which it circulates. But their power over money is quite limited — and as Schumpeter said (and Marx would have said), the limits are clearest in determining the value of money. The mint can print any numbers on its bills and coins, but it cannot decide what those numbers refer to. That is determined by countless price-setting decisions by mainly private firms, reacting strategically to the structure of costs and demand they face, in competition with other firms.
Marx argued that money in capitalism has three main functions: as a measure of value; as a means of exchange; and “money as money” which includes debt payments. Marx’s theorisation of money as a measure of value derives from his labour theory of value; and this is the main difference between Marx and the Chartalists/MMT supporters, who have no theory of value whatsoever.
Money only has value if there is value in production to back it. Government spending cannot create that value — indeed some government spending can destroy value (consider the case of armaments, for example). Productive value is what gives money credibility. A productive private sector generates the domestic product and income that gives government liabilities credibility in the first place. When that credibility is not there, then trust in the state’s currency can disappear fast, as we have seen in Venezuela, Zimbabwe and Argentina.
MMT essentially boils down to good old keynesianism in the end. It’s still a thousand times better than neoliberalism of course, but merely reformist, not equipped to handle capitalism’s crisis and not willing to transcend it.
Money can exist without states - but likewise, most states existed without money, at least internally. Graebers Debt is all about this.
Half of capitalism enjoyers I know complain that “communists” (anyone who complains about capitalism) are hypocrites because they “don’t apply communism to their lives” by sharing their salaries and buying iphones and super expensive clothes.
Ask them how one can “apply communism” when they live under a society that is capitalist, where any donation or salary sharing is effectively feeding capitalism and they’ll just circle back to the initial complaint.
One way to do that, and no joke, is to start up and participate in local barter economies.
A bunch of places I’ve lived in, especially with a large student population, would have communities where people who have surpluses of something, extra food, old furniture, can give it to people who need them.
Ask yourself the question, what can you do to fulfill a need while preempting consumption, and you have an answer.
I mean a slaver does work, it’s just that job shouldn’t exist in the first place.
if the boss doesn’t take your money someone else will
’ + money is a social construct ’
our whole society is inherently a social construct
And taxpayer subsidies while they are accountable to no laws
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Now do stockholders and stock options
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Management is also work. You can’t just throw labor into goods, you need to coordinate it
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@yogthos
Anarchists in Spain also thought that capitalist bosses were useless. They ended up fucking up so bad that even commies panicked and stepped in to handle the things.
That was the only time commies lost the gold medal. They regret it so bad that they haven’t been talking about it for all these decades.What?
