• Hot Saucerman@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    Socialists don’t hate markets, they hate workers not having any power or democratic choice in how they interact in the market.

    Workers owning the means of production just means the workers are doing the same work but they are in ownership of the factory and the profits. They will still sell the products they produce in a marketplace.

    • hglman@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      I, a socialist, hate markets. They are simplistic and functional artifacts of the available way to pass information.

      • galloog1@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Cool, what is your preferred replacement and does everyone in this thread agree? You have managed to continue criticism but not offer a replacement yet again.

        • hglman@lemmy.ml
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          1 year ago

          The ole can have criticism without perfect solutions response. Cool, how useless and pointless of you.

            • bloodfart@lemmy.ml
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              1 year ago

              No, it broadens and deepens understanding.

              Alternatives come from that understanding. Criticism is the fundamental step towards alternatives.

              • agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works
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                1 year ago

                No, it broadens and deepens understanding

                How exactly do you come to that conclusion?

                Edit: “Thing bad” doesn’t broaden or deepen anything. “Thing has specific shortcomings which aren’t present in specific alternative to thing” is a useful criticism. Criticism without alternatives is just called complaining.

                  • agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works
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                    1 year ago

                    Not always, sometimes it’s just an acknowledgement of insurmountable facts. Pointing out the inability of a particular engine to overcome the laws of thermodynamics to output more energy than is input is not useful criticism. Pointing out the mortality of individuals is not useful criticism. Those shortcomings are specific, but unless there’s some alternative that doesn’t have those shortcomings, those aren’t useful observations, they’re pointless complaints.

      • Eldritch@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I, a socialist don’t. I think however they should be tightly regulated. And kept away from basic necessitys.

        Markets have proven time and again to only serve oligarchs, or create oligarchs to serve. When left to their own wont. If we can choose to participate or not in the markets. Then there is no issue with markets. When we’re slaves to the markets as we currently are however. No one is free.

        • hglman@lemmy.ml
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          1 year ago

          Markets have lots of issues; you just named a bunch. Markets are subject to all kinds of hidden information manipulation contrary to prompting non cooperation and solving for individual maximums via exploitation like you literally outlined. Your wish to magically regulate them is just going to be corrupted.

          • Eldritch@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Which is why I specifically mentioned decoupling from necessities. Regardless it seems like we are both blocked from the community LOL. But it’s not like I expected more from the community based around memes

      • wewbull@feddit.uk
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        1 year ago

        So, you would never trade with someone else something you have for something they have? You want to be entirely self sufficient?

        If this isn’t true, why do think markets serve no purpose?

              • wewbull@feddit.uk
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                1 year ago

                No because I don’t give you a gift only if you give me one. It’s not a transaction. They are gifts.

                …but you turned it into a semantic point. If I farm sheep and you bake bread, it’s a market when I trade you wool for bread. If trade even as basic as this can’t occur then you’re relying on everyone to be self-sufficient.

                The alternative is you’re expecting everyone to put everything they produce into a kitty which is distributed to all, and I think that is a sure fire recipe for everyone to go hungry and for society to stagnate. There’s little incentive to be productive, and no incentive to be inventive.

    • masquenox@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      They will still sell the products they produce in a marketplace.

      There is no rule that states they have to sell squat in a marketplace. They could, but they also couldn’t. That’s the whole point of the workers owning the means of production - the workers involved makes those deicisions, not a capitalist or bureaucratic parasite class.

      • Hot Saucerman@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        Did… did I say they couldn’t? I think this continues to be a misunderstanding of what socialists believe.

        • galloog1@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          So ah… What’s the issue then? You can have what you want under capitalism. Attacking the system is forcing your own on others. This is unironically what makes socialism unpopular in the context of history.

          • BleatingZombie@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            They said it in the first comment

            they hate workers not having any power or democratic choice in how they interact in the market

            • galloog1@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              The western left doesn’t agree on one form of socialism to align around so it is both impossible to criticize with any specificity and serves as a catch-all in opposition to the current system. It breaks down when they suddenly have to align on specific policies.

              • hglman@lemmy.ml
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                1 year ago

                That’s a good thing; socialism is a fledgling idea. It needs discoure and experimentation. The attack that lack of exact details and perfect cohesion is an empty one.

      • CAPSLOCKFTW@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        Nothing stops them! except shitty wages that are not enough to pay your absurdly high bills for housing, utility and shitty food plus competition which does not treat their eorkers fair and is therefore much more profitable and can easily destroy your worker-friendly cooperative, which they totally will do because CAPITALISM

      • Infynis@midwest.social
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        1 year ago

        Nothing in America stops the workers from owning the factory or the profits.

        Fully stop? No, not technically. But our society makes it as close to impossible as it can be without being illegal

          • gerbilOFdoom@beehaw.org
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            1 year ago

            Sure: becoming a member of a corporation costs money. You either have to pay to get it set up or buy a share to get in so those who already paid are made whole.

            Unfortunately, the US as an example, our society is structured such that the majority of people here have zero savings with wages decreasing in value every year due to inflation. A person in this situation cannot produce money to buy-in; squeezing water from a stone situation.

            • Hot Saucerman@lemmy.ml
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              1 year ago

              All people are essentially born with no assets, and if they want to secure wealth, they must sell their labor to achieve it.

              In other words, children of parents who own an outsized number of assets do not have to sell their labor to achieve it, because it is offset by their parents assets. This inherently produces an unequal/unbalanced system where some people simply never have to work this way. This is why extremely in-demand internships at companies in places like New York City are often unpaid, and thus generally end up going to people who already have money, access, and support systems. Because only those kind of people can afford to take on an unpaid internship to move upward in the capitalist system.

              This is also the source of generational poverty, because it can be really hard to escape when generation after generation are born to no assets.

              • argv_minus_one@beehaw.org
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                1 year ago

                All people are essentially born with no assets

                False. The children of rich people are born rich. That’s a major part of the problem. It creates dynasties.

                • DataDecay@beehaw.org
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                  1 year ago

                  This is an area I have said needs to be taxed to hell, there is no good reason we should allow the passing of wealth without heavy penalty. I’m convinced that if we taxed all forms of wealth transfer at something like 80%, we could pretty much get rid of income tax. Income you have earned should be your entitlement, assets passed down to you should be where the taxes cut in.

                  • argv_minus_one@beehaw.org
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                    1 year ago

                    So, you have to sell off 80% of your dead mother’s mementos unless you’re rich? Careful—your proposal is good in spirit, but has ugly side effects that need to be carefully avoided.

              • gerbilOFdoom@beehaw.org
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                1 year ago

                Inflation’s been happening since currency was created. We don’t notice day to day because the effects are stretched over a long period.

                Try calculating the value of a 2010 dollar against the current 2023 dollar. You’ll find the cumulative effect of ~5% inflation each year is significant.

                In addition, periods exist throughout American history during which inflation has spiked noticably within a year or two - this is nowhere near the first time.

          • Sanctus@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Look at the current environment in America. Look at the absence of worker co-ops besides like Winco. Why aren’t there more? What factors are at play that is seemingly preventinf the natural formation of worker co-ops if they are allowed? Are children taught they can do that? Do people getting MBAs learn this in their classes? There are a lot of questions to ask here. While we do have some examples, for whatever reason they are not common here. I do think it has something to do with the resources the average citizen has available, the current ecosystems within existing markets, and all around education of the average American citizen.

              • pjhenry1216@kbin.social
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                1 year ago

                You clearly know nothing of the coffee industry. Don’t speak on a topic if you literally know nothing. Third wave coffee exists because of the inherent abuse of the workers who actually harvest coffee. That you’re so naive to even think that the person behind the counter is the end of who is part of Starbucks is shockingly sad considering how much you’re trying to fight for something that is dependent on you needing a much better understanding of what you’re talking about.

                  • pjhenry1216@kbin.social
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                    1 year ago

                    I never said Starbucks owns the slave labor. But to ignore the influence they have is outstandingly naive. Like, do you think at all before replying? Are you in middle school and have any idea how the real world operates?

              • Hot Saucerman@lemmy.ml
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                1 year ago

                You do realize that coffee beans grow in the tropics… right?

                They aren’t growin em in fuckin Seattle.

                  • Hot Saucerman@lemmy.ml
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                    1 year ago

                    I think the point the other user was trying to make is that Starbucks already has connections, and they are able to source their coffee from more shady sources if they really want to. Someone starting out new has no such connections and will pay a higher price for their beans than Starbucks, ergo, they have to find something else to compete on other than price (which I think is possible, I live near many local coffee shops, including some worker co-ops). However, you’re still dealing with Starbucks having a larger presence than you, economically, and them being able to source cheaper goods due to economies of scale. I would think you’re already familiar with this. You’re correct in asserting that you’re stuck just having to “believe” your sources don’t use slave labor, because you’re sourcing it from another country. Starbucks at least has the money to check on such things, if they so choose.

                    The point that I was trying to make was that Starbucks works with more than just the people at the counter, which is how you characterized it. Moving goalposts now isn’t very helpful.

                  • pjhenry1216@kbin.social
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                    1 year ago

                    Starbucks doesn’t own the farms. They buy the beans from the people growing them. The exact same thing you would do if you started a coffee chain or you would buy from a wholesaler…

                    It’s so insanely more complicated than that. Not all farms are equal.

              • dannoffs@lemmy.sdf.org
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                1 year ago

                What do you think coffee is? Do you think people with colored hair just magically conjure coffee out of the ether?

            • dannoffs@lemmy.sdf.org
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              1 year ago

              As someone in the industry, I can say you actually do. It’s scary how easy it is to buy coffee harvested by literal or effectively slaves.

          • pjhenry1216@kbin.social
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            1 year ago

            but the workers could do it if they wanted

            Yeah, and a third party candidate could be voted into every seat and the presidency, but it’s so stacked against it occurring, it’s effectively impossible.

            The state of the economy today is what’s stopping a vast majority of people from doing so. You can open a coffee shop and survive, but you could never compete against Starbucks. You would not even dent their bottom line. You would need hundreds of millions of dollars to realistically compete. Capitalism has brought us to a point where a majority of folks need to sell their idea to investors, further separating most workers from the value of their work.

            Edit: I’m really tired of the naive and childish defenses most people put up for capitalism. “Nothing is stopping you.” Yeah and “nothing” is stopping a transgender women from becoming our next president by the same definition of “nothing”. Might as well say nothing is stopping you from passing through walls as quantum mechanics says it’s possible.

              • dannoffs@lemmy.sdf.org
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                1 year ago

                Dutch brothers by revenue is essentially a drive through energy drink stand, not a coffee company and Peet’s is owned by a holding company that got rich off of Nazi work camp labor.

                  • dannoffs@lemmy.sdf.org
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                    1 year ago

                    Peet’s had 4 stores before it started changing hands, Peet’s and Starbucks famously did not compete with each other for years, and Starbucks wasn’t even selling brewed coffee before it was taken over by Shultz and venture capital.

                    But from my experience in the industry, your confident incorrectness is perfectly in character for a coffee shop owner.

                  • pjhenry1216@kbin.social
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                    1 year ago

                    You haven’t owned coffee places. You’ve been entirely wrong on how to source coffee plus your description of what even makes coffee. If you used to own them, you probably ran them into the ground. You’re objectively wrong on coffee production.

              • pjhenry1216@kbin.social
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                1 year ago

                You seem to think to compete, you have to grow larger.

                You need to at least meet inflation, if not outpace it. Moreover, you’re not competing if you aren’t actually trying to battle. Competition breeds innovation. If you do not compete and do not get better or try to improve, society would degrade and regress. Come on. Before you respond next time, just think about what the consequence of what you’re saying is before.you actually hit the button. It saves us a lot of time.

    • lightnsfw@reddthat.com
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      1 year ago

      Do they actually trust their coworkers to run the company without tanking it almost immediatly? Most of my coworkers can barely make it through their own tasks without fucking something up, let alone actually having input on how the business is run.

      • PeriodicallyPedantic@lemmy.ca
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        1 year ago

        Some of the workers may be managerial. But the managerial workers don’t own a disproportionate amount of the company, and they’re not considered the “superior” of any other workers.

      • Hot Saucerman@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        You must need a better job. I’ve had plenty of workplaces where I could count on everyone around me.

        You know, the hiring manager usually has something to do with the quality of people hired. Maybe you could talk to them instead?

      • Infynis@midwest.social
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        1 year ago

        Most of my coworkers can barely make it through their own tasks without fucking something up

        This is a problem with the company you work for, not your coworkers. I’m sure if they were paid more, were given more agency, and received better training, they’d be better elployees

        • Hot Saucerman@lemmy.ml
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          1 year ago

          Either that or the reason they purposefully hire meth-addled freaks is because they want desperate people who won’t fight for any of those things.

          Source: Friend who works in a warehouse and has coworkers who are obviously there to get a paycheck to afford their fix and then move on. It’s the company culture. They could choose to hire better people, or mentor the people who could grow, they don’t.

        • lightnsfw@reddthat.com
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          1 year ago

          No, they’re just idiots. Myself and others have had the same training and responsibilities and do fine. It’s not that difficult of a job.

          • potpie@beehaw.org
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            1 year ago

            It’s not just about treating current employees well. It’s also about offering enough at the hiring stage to attract more good workers. Higher starting pay and a better reputation as a place to work means more people applying, means that Methface Matt can’t compete with TypeA Teresa to get hired in the first place.

            • lightnsfw@reddthat.com
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              1 year ago

              People lie in their interviews all the time. The amount of conversations I’ve had with my boss regarding people he’s hired that turned out be idiots that have started with “I don’t know what happened with that dude, he seemed totally normal in the hiring process”. We’re also restricted in what questions we can ask during interviews because asking people probing questions is apparently not fair according to our HR dept which makes it pretty easy for them to BS their way in. Then we’re stuck with their dumb asses for months before HR lets us fire them.

      • masquenox@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        Most of my coworkers can barely make it through their own tasks

        I guess you haven’t met many CEOs, then.

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        1 year ago

        Didn’t say they run it. The person who runs it can be simply another employee. It’s just there are no outside investors and everyone has a vote on the board. You put someone in charge you trust but everyone as a whole has a say in big picture stuff with the person at the top being day to day and being held accountable to employees and not investors.

        Capitalism fundamentally changes the relationship between workers and their work. One takes the value they create and gives it to someone else. One doesn’t.

        • CoLa666@feddit.de
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          1 year ago

          But why would this employee put in that more work than anybody else? Just to get the same amount of compensation as anybody else? I certainly wouldn’t put up with all the complications of leading a bunch of people without being paid extra.

          • pjhenry1216@kbin.social
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            1 year ago

            But why would this employee put in that more work than anybody else? Just to get the same amount of compensation as anybody else?

            Who said that’s the case?

            • CoLa666@feddit.de
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              1 year ago

              Than I don’t really get the idea. Could you elaborate?

              • As far as I understood, the company’s shares belong to the employees (“everyone gets a seat on the board”) and those elect a director which in turn organises the work structure, assigns roles etc. Correct?
              • Can he be replaced at all times?
              • How is the compensation of the employees determined?
              • How are employees handled which are not performing their duties?
              • Can employees be fired?
              • How can employees join and leave the company?
              • Do they return their shares on leaving?
              • Can they buy and sell their shares?
              • How do new employees get their shares? Are they assigned or bought?
              • How is capital raised for large long-term investments like a new machine?
              • If the employees bring up the capital, do they get interest?
              • What if no capital can be raised? Is the company terminated?
              • Can some employees put in more capital than others?
              • Is the financial gain distributed equally between the employees?
        • Hot Saucerman@lemmy.ml
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          1 year ago

          Yes I think so, because the people running the company have no interest in listening to the positions of the workers, especially if it makes them less money.

          When the people working in the company have a democratic vote, they at least have a choice and don’t have big mistakes dictated from upon high.

          At least then, the workers can agree they all made a shitty mistake together. It doesn’t mean workers are infallible. All humans are fallible. All humans make mistakes. The difference is the power dynamic, nothing else.

        • lightnsfw@reddthat.com
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          I think they have education related to the running of a large company whereas most of my coworkers barely made it through their IT certs and have some of the stupidest takes regarding how things should be done I’ve ever heard in my life.

        • lightnsfw@reddthat.com
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          I’m great to work with. No one has to worry if the task they assign me is going to be done right and on time.

      • TheFascination@beehaw.org
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        1 year ago

        If worker-owned workplaces still operate within a market, there will still be pressure to compete with other companies. People can still come up with new ideas to compete and change can still happen.

      • TeddyPolice@feddit.de
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        1 year ago

        Marxists do hate Markets though

        We love oversimplifying generalizations that make us look like absolute buffoons though.

        At least according to trustworthy sources, i.e. your gut feeling.

        /s

          • TeddyPolice@feddit.de
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            Right, and Marxists are characterized by their complete lack of reasoning skills, so they have to blindly parrot everything Marx has ever said, especially the stuff that obviously doesn’t work out. This is actually core marxist thinking.

            /s