• HardNut@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      State capitalism is an oxymoron, if the state controls the means of trade, then it’s not private.

      • PersnickityPenguin@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        That’s an interesting point, however it is widely accepted that states can leverage capitalism by allowing quasi-private corporations to operate semi-independently from the government.

        And in fact, many of the largest industrial amd infrastructure projects are only possible by state-funded corporations to undertake them.

        For example, NASA, the Works Progress Administration, the Bonneville or Hoover Dam projects, and the development of most advanced American weapons platforms. None of these were possible without direct government funding and management.

        There is a surprising amount of gray area between straight up socialism and pure capitalism, and in our world pure capitalism is less common than you think.


        Perfect Wikipedia:

        “Economists, historians, political economists, and sociologists have adopted different perspectives in their analyses of capitalism and have recognized various forms of it in practice. These include laissez-faire or free-market capitalism, anarcho-capitalism, state capitalism, and welfare capitalism. Different forms of capitalism feature varying degrees of free markets, public ownership,[8] obstacles to free competition, and state-sanctioned social policies.”

      • Prunebutt@feddit.de
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        1 year ago

        This interpretation is not about following the definitions of a word to the teet, but rather to understand how systems of control work.

        If you have the same property relations of the means of production like in capitalism, but you switch out the boss with a state bureaucrat, you functionally have the same system. But not with the private ownership, but rather with the state ownership: state capitalism.

        If you would adjust your definitions of capitalism here, your political understanding would actually grow.

        • HardNut@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          The boss being a state bureaucrat as opposed to a business owner is a massive distinction. Government employee’s primary obligation is to their employer: the government, not the business. This dynamic changes things, it’s not the same system.

          Suggesting that we adjust the definitions of words in order to believe your ideology is… an interesting tactic.

          • Prunebutt@feddit.de
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            1 year ago

            The boss being a state bureaucrat as opposed to a business owner is a massive distinction. Government employee’s primary obligation is to their employer: the government, not the business. This dynamic changes things, it’s not the same system.

            What’s the functional difference between the CEO of a Corporation and some surpreme ruler of a state?

            Suggesting that we adjust the definitions of words in order to believe your ideology is… an interesting tactic.

            You have it the wrong way around. I simply think definitions should have the purpose of understanding the world better. If a definition doesn’t correlate with the world that we perceive, they’re no use and should be adjusted. That is literally how language works.

            I came to the conclusions of my ideology by thinking about the political definitions I have in my model of the world. If the model/the definitions don’t fit, I change it/them.

      • SeaJ@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        There are many state owned enterprises that have private investors as well.