Thursday, September 25, 2008
Means of Production
I understand Atrios is joking here, but I think it's worth noting that insurance megacorporations are exactly the sorts of inefficient entities that are unique to capitalism. Insurance and banking don't produce anything and wouldn't exist under the Socialist Utopia.
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4 comments:
In the Socialist Utopia, how does the lone genius inventor outfit his garage with a full range of over-unity generators if not with poorly-diligenced loans from the bank?
dammit, I wish that checkbox was checked automatically
Uncle Joe would recognize your genius and fill your concrete slab garage with all manner of equipment in gunmetal gray, courtesy of the state.
But really it depends on your flavor of Socialist Utopia...mutual credit systems are one way of letting people borrow start-up capital in the absence of rent-taking banks.
Looking of "mutual credit".....
OK, so I'd just go down to Genius 'R Us and get whatever I'd need. If I invent a ray gun, I give them one to zap shoplifters with. If I fail to invent a ray gun, I send them N bags of tomatos for their salads?
No wait, it isn't barter. So I'd send them SocCreds or whatever, but I might get those from ray gun sales or tomato sales. Basically an interest free loan, like Wikipedia says. But what of the time value of money and the lost opportunity that Genius 'R' Us had of selling that equipment to someone that would pay back faster?
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