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You can have free markets without capitalism. Consider a system almost exactly like we have now, with independent companies competing for profits in free market
by hnaccount141 4y ago
You can have free markets without capitalism. Consider a system almost exactly like we have now, with independent companies competing for profits in free markets, but where those companies are worker-owned [0]. Such a system could have the benefits of capitalism with regards to innovation and resource allocation while reducing some of its negative effects (inequality, worker alienation, etc.)
No idea if it would work in practice, but we need to move beyond this mindset that there are only two possible options for how to structure an economy.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_socialism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_socialism
- klipt 4y agoSure, but by restricting ownership of companies to workers only, you've obviously made the market less free. If a worker wants to sell their share of the company to anyone else, that's forbidden, right? So workers can't diversify their risks away from their particular industry. Which also doesn't prevent inequality. If software engineers own Google, and baristas own Starbucks, what with Google being way more profitable, the software engineers will still be much richer than the baristas. Free markets with a tax funded social safety net seems like a much more efficient way of reducing inequality to me.
- JamesBarney 4y agoWho starts new companies and what incentive do they have to start them if all the upside is captured by the employees?
- klipt 4y agoCo-ops do exist in the US, for example credit unions. But not very many perhaps because of the incentive issue you mentioned.