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The inequality charts would beg to differ. We need redistribution. There is an army of unemployed labor and underutilized factories and other facilities. The ma

The inequality charts would beg to differ. We need redistribution. There is an army of unemployed labor and underutilized factories and other facilities. The market is profoundly irrational at allocating resources to meet human need. With a democratically run economy, we will fully utilize the entire working population while cutting individuals some slack by reducing working hours, increasing safety, and ensuring pensions will be kept. We will do away with the unelected oligarchy that rules this planet.

zozbot234 7y ago
We need redistribution, but we also need production, i.e. GDP growth. You can't have one without the other. (And it's damn hard to redistribute sizeable fractions of GDP without killing the golden goose. It can be done, but it's the sort of policy that has to be designed with great care.) > The market is profoundly irrational at allocating resources to meet human need. The market in places like France is deeply distorted by misguided government policies, many of them a product of simple corruption and misguided thinking, and not any serious attempt to remedy any market failure or promote social goals. It is "irrational" indeed, but not in the way you assume. This explains why there's so much structural unemployment and wasted and unused capital there, as you point out.
- tehjoker 7y ago
  Equipment and people exist, they just are. It is the market that decides whether to open a position or to use a piece of equipment is unprofitable. The fact that the market persistently and unresolvably fails to employ everyone that wants a job or produce things that people need is a terrible flaw in the economy and is a condemnation of capitalism.
  - zozbot234 7y ago
    I'm pretty sure that equipment doesn't just "exist", that it takes plenty of labor to make those pieces of equipment. Sometimes though pieces of equipment are just uneconomic given the surrounding business environment; "the market" cannot arbitrarily decide to make them profitable. Either people decide to change that business environment for the better, or some expenses will have to be written off and the business will need to move on. This shouln't be a "condemnation" of capitalism, it's a critical part of the system. Mistakes are normal, but they need to be acknowledged, and not stick around as zombies.
rayiner 7y ago
You’re mixing up two different things. You can have redistribution without having the government “run the economy” (which is all “democratically run economy” means).
- tehjoker 7y ago
  You'd think that, but you'd be missing the entirety of the left critique of capitalism and its power structures.

zozbot234 7y ago

We need redistribution, but we also need production, i.e. GDP growth. You can't have one without the other. (And it's damn hard to redistribute sizeable fractions of GDP without killing the golden goose. It can be done, but it's the sort of policy that has to be designed with great care.) > The market is profoundly irrational at allocating resources to meet human need. The market in places like France is deeply distorted by misguided government policies, many of them a product of simple corruption and misguided thinking, and not any serious attempt to remedy any market failure or promote social goals. It is "irrational" indeed, but not in the way you assume. This explains why there's so much structural unemployment and wasted and unused capital there, as you point out.

tehjoker 7y ago
Equipment and people exist, they just are. It is the market that decides whether to open a position or to use a piece of equipment is unprofitable. The fact that the market persistently and unresolvably fails to employ everyone that wants a job or produce things that people need is a terrible flaw in the economy and is a condemnation of capitalism.
- zozbot234 7y ago
  I'm pretty sure that equipment doesn't just "exist", that it takes plenty of labor to make those pieces of equipment. Sometimes though pieces of equipment are just uneconomic given the surrounding business environment; "the market" cannot arbitrarily decide to make them profitable. Either people decide to change that business environment for the better, or some expenses will have to be written off and the business will need to move on. This shouln't be a "condemnation" of capitalism, it's a critical part of the system. Mistakes are normal, but they need to be acknowledged, and not stick around as zombies.

rayiner 7y ago

You’re mixing up two different things. You can have redistribution without having the government “run the economy” (which is all “democratically run economy” means).

tehjoker 7y ago
You'd think that, but you'd be missing the entirety of the left critique of capitalism and its power structures.