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How would one support innovation in socialism? (lemmy.blahaj.zone)

submitted 7 months ago by Smorty@lemmy.blahaj.zone to c/socialism@lemmy.ml

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I am genuinely interested how such a thing would be done. I understand that it wouldn't be as hard as with communism, but I can't think of any way to encourage companies to make better (genuinely better) products. I remember how my mother told me how in her days (she lived in the DDR) there wasn't really any reason to be better than another company, as they would all be payed equally.

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[–] Smorty@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I do understand that it is motivating for people to perform tasks they like and to strive for goals, but how would we deal with work which does not for any of these criteria?

[–] WalnutLum@lemmy.ml 4 points 7 months ago

My opinion:

There's really two types of innovation, one type of innovation which expands the horizons of humanities understanding, things like medical breakthroughs and space exploration,

and another that makes the same work we've been doing more efficient. Think Nickle-Iron batteries over Lithium-Ion for example.

Socialist countries tend to excel at the horizon-expanding innovation because profit motive exists less than the motive for expanding one's own consciousness at the expense at times of efficiency, and in reverse capitalist countries tend to excel at innovation that focuses on efficiency over the expansion of human knowledge