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Question to the ones that fully left Reddit
(lemmy.dbzer0.com)
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this post was submitted on 27 Oct 2023
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Democratically elected/accountable doesn't necessarily beget quality. See: politicians.
Point is, people act like moving away from capitalism would suddenly fix all life's ails. Sure, it would probably fix some stuff, it would probably cause some problems capitalism doesn't too. It's much more effective to focus on tackling specifically scoped issues rather than whinging about capitalism and proposing no solutions other than tearing down the entire system and hoping whatever rises from the ashes is better.
To make some very specific points, I believe that if we simply fixed outrageous housing and healthcare costs, the overwhelming majority of domestic complaints about the USA would be solved. No need to ditch capitalism to fix those problems.
If given a choice between democratically elected politicians and unaccountable dictators and autocrats, I would choose politicians.
By capitalism, I mean specific institutions. I have specific solutions in mind such as recognizing the inalienable right to workplace democracy, and common ownership of land, natural resources, and the means of production.
Land's inelastic supply, which can only be solved by socializing it, plays a role in housing costs.
Work issues remain unsolved by those two
Obviously one would choose democratically elected politicians over unaccountable dictators and autocrats. What's the saying, "Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others" or something along those lines.
Regarding workplace democracy, the idealized form of this in a capitalist framework would be having lots of competitive companies in every field. You would then be able to "vote" by taking your labor elsewhere if you don't like what your employer is doing. Now, I of course understand that we don't live in fantasyland, and for many sectors, that might not be possible. Many sectors have unique challenges that would need to be addressed with tailored legislation, but that's beyond the scope of an internet comment.
For land, easy, land value tax. It effectively is an implementation of leasing land from the government and solves a lot of housing issues by encouraging development of high value parcels so you don't end up with dozens of parking lots taking up 50% of your urban centers, and doesn't regressively place burdens on the poor.
If we manage to get to a post scarcity society where we have a lot more people than labor to get done, then I would put my bet on UBI or negative tax rates being an effective way forward.
I agree with most of your points except the points about worker democracy. Being able to exit is not the same as having voice and exit, which is what worker democracy involves. The employer is not a workers' delegate. Their managers manage the firm in the employer's name. The employer appropriates 100% of the positive and negative product of the firm. The workers are de facto responsible for creating the product. This violates the principle that legal and de facto responsibility match
I can understand that. I think we should try to work toward a more democratic workplace, although I don't think any existing solution is something we can just apply in the USA. A good stepping stone would be to incentivize different ownership structures and improve the bureaucratic mechanisms for handling them. There's a couple worker owned grocery chains in my city that are a great asset to the community (and have the best beer selection) and I'd love to see more support for people who want to make companies like that.