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> It's capitalism: Actually, it's not. It's a page taken out of the old soviet playbook, where factory workers were pushed to increase production through means
by geezerjay 8y ago
> It's capitalism:
Actually, it's not. It's a page taken out of the old soviet playbook, where factory workers were pushed to increase production through means other than pay increases or productivity rewards, and played with psychological tricks such as appealing to nationalism or even conformance with the regime's ideal.
The exploitation trick is as old as time, but it's not specific to an economic system.
- ams6110 8y ago> means other than pay increases Hence the saying: "they pretend to pay us, and we pretend to work."
- maxxxxx 8y agoI always tell people that working in a big Corp feels like walking around in Eastern Germany while the wall was still up. Same kind of posters, 5 year plans, top down propaganda that has little resemblance with reality, "rewards" like T-shirts with motivational messages.
- jahaja 8y agoThis is the reason why some people called it state capitalism, since the only difference for the workers is who's the boss.
- geezerjay 8y ago> This is the reason why some people called it state capitalism Actually, it's not. State capitalism has absolutely no relation to how workers were used and abused by communist regimes.
- jahaja 8y agoCare to explain? For example, the following is from "The Failure of the Working Class" by Anton Pannekoek in 1946: The workers of the world nowadays have two mighty foes, two hostile and suppressing powers over against them: the monopolistic capitalism of America and England, and Russian state capitalism. The former is drifting toward social dictatorship camouflaged in democratic forms; the latter proclaims dictatorship openly, formerly with the addition "of the proletariat," although nobody believes that any more.
- maxlybbert 8y agoRonald Coase’s paper, “The Nature of the Firm,” compares companies with the alternative of everybody being an independent contractor cooperating with other independent contractors on individual projects. I think it’s an interesting thought experiment, and it focuses on why companies operate in a authoritarian way internally. Occasionally, companies try to organize with market principles internally, with divisions charging each other for services performed. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it turns into Sears.
- _jal 8y agoThe tension between capitalism and communism is a dispute about the optimal size of the firm.