this post was submitted on 29 May 2024
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Communism is when China does anything... Especially capitalism!
The type of capitalism found in China is known as state capitalism and it's an unholy blend of central planning and free markets, with the government owning significant stakes in all key industries, exerting a massive control over both the economy and society as a whole using all of the methods used by previous Communist autocracies, only this time with far more technology.
The only way in which communism is inherently authoritarian is in that wealth must be forcibly taken from capitalists and landowners in order to help the masses.
Equating communism with authoritarianism, but not doing the same with capitalism, a system in which the owning class oppresses (to the point of homelessness and starvation) the working class, is simply ignorant.
There is oppression under this system as well, there are private prisons that lead directly to incarceration, there is gross inequality, there is global injustice (forced extraction of wealth and natural resources from foreign lands), there is climate injustice in which a tiny minority of the population is directly causing harm, suffering, and an increasing amount of climate refugees (to which they deny entry after making their homes unlivable).
but yes an economic system that puts the needs of the many above the lavish lifestyles of the few and which prefers cooperation to competition is inherently authoritarian and this one isn't. How many terrible capitalist countries can you name?
Capitalism only works in theory.
When wealth was taken from capitalists and landowners in the Soviet Union, it results in millions of poor people starving to death. (the rich people were worked to death; the poor people starved to death; there was a lot of death)
And yes, that is a very significant way of being authoritarian. Taking people’s property to redistribute is about as authoritarian as it gets.
Yes the God given law of capitalism dictates the only fair way that wealth can be distributed
I'm not a very bright person most the time and when an economy is being discussed that multiplies. But how is that a free market by any definition? Or am I completely misunderstanding what you're saying?