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Capitalism isn't all about choice and competition. Free Markets are. Capitalism is about the means of production being held in private hands - but those priva

Capitalism isn't all about choice and competition. Free Markets are. Capitalism is about the means of production being held in private hands - but those private hands still do their best to own all of the means of production and to lock out potential competitors. The two get conflated (free markets and capitalism) but they are different beasts. In fact, you can have a free market socialism (tried semi-successfully by Yugoslavia). But ensuring free markets via regulation is how to keep Capitalism from becoming a Gibson novel.

haolez 7y ago
Free market socialism? How would information about value be propagated? That's usually done via prices and money.
- thiagoharry 7y ago
  Some options: a) Also using competition, prices and money, but with factories, companies and lands organized by worker's cooperatives, with the profit shared according with some logic not based in mere property. b) Using only prices and money while keeping updated data about production and consumption, and updating prices based in these data. Perhaps easier with modern technology than in the past. The information about these things can propagate in wires and communication means like the other kind of information that the society needs.
  - haolez 7y ago
    I think that a) already happens when a company shares its profits with the workforce. Mere competition will force the competitors of such a company to do that as well to attract talent. Item b) sounds like capitalism and blockchain to me :) About item c), heuristics and politics don't go well together, according to my intuition. But these are just my opinions. This is a fascinating topic.
    - haolez 7y ago
      There were some nasty edits from the parent
- andrepd 7y ago
  Precisely. "Prices and money" is the "free market" part. The "socialism" part means "collective/social ownership of companies and means of production".
rapnie 7y ago
Do you have a good read of free markets? I often see them pop up in discussions defending capitalism, and always got the idea they are some kind of utopia in the way they were presented.

haolez 7y ago

Free market socialism? How would information about value be propagated? That's usually done via prices and money.

thiagoharry 7y ago
Some options: a) Also using competition, prices and money, but with factories, companies and lands organized by worker's cooperatives, with the profit shared according with some logic not based in mere property. b) Using only prices and money while keeping updated data about production and consumption, and updating prices based in these data. Perhaps easier with modern technology than in the past. The information about these things can propagate in wires and communication means like the other kind of information that the society needs.
- haolez 7y ago
  I think that a) already happens when a company shares its profits with the workforce. Mere competition will force the competitors of such a company to do that as well to attract talent. Item b) sounds like capitalism and blockchain to me :) About item c), heuristics and politics don't go well together, according to my intuition. But these are just my opinions. This is a fascinating topic.
  - haolez 7y ago
    There were some nasty edits from the parent
andrepd 7y ago
Precisely. "Prices and money" is the "free market" part. The "socialism" part means "collective/social ownership of companies and means of production".

rapnie 7y ago

Do you have a good read of free markets? I often see them pop up in discussions defending capitalism, and always got the idea they are some kind of utopia in the way they were presented.