@theropologist Do you want a free press that's not owned outright by oligarchs and their toadies?

Then we need to build it ourselves and use software like Mastodon to promote that work. Because the oligarchs have built a media cartel and we ain't in it.

@ParanoidFactoid @theropologist this is why I love @igd_news & @UnicornRiot

But I am curious what some of the benefits you see capitalism having are (@theropologist)

@currentbias @theropologist @igd_news @UnicornRiot

1.

I promised to respond to this question. But it's going to take a thread. So here we go.

@currentbias @theropologist @igd_news @UnicornRiot

2.

You asked, 'what benefits do I see of capitalism?'

To respond, I'd like to first untangle base definitions. Because we are far removed from the origins of Enlightenment liberalism, which is the foundation of capitalism as an ideological force.

To do that though, rather than compare the differences between capitalism, socialism, and marxism, let's instead ask: what are the similarities?

(uh oh) lol

@currentbias @theropologist @igd_news @UnicornRiot

3.

Today, the differences seem maximal. That is, capitalism is on one end of an economic spectrum and marxism on the other.

(let's assume, marxism is to the left and capitalism is to the right on this theoretical scale)

This view - maximal difference - is incompatible with early views on economics and society back in the 18th-19th century.

@currentbias @theropologist @igd_news @UnicornRiot

4.

Let's use Labor Theory of Value as an example. This is typically ascribed to Marx. But actually, it was originally delineated by Adam Smith in Wealth of Nations. Then David Ricardo expanded on that. Both of these, some eighty years before Marx.

Which means - and this should not surprise - Marx was well read in the economic literature of that time and used their ideas to further his own.

(like a scholar would)

@currentbias @theropologist @igd_news @UnicornRiot

5.

What Marx did to Smith and Ricardo's work was to shift to focus on the profiteering by owners to that of loss by workers.

Smith and Ricardo liked profit. Marx, not so much. But Marx took from Smith and Ricardo the idea Labor Theory of Value and then inverted its presumption (or focus). But the theory is the same.

It's also important to understand the difference between Marx-Engles Marxism vs Leninist State Marxism.

@currentbias @theropologist @igd_news @UnicornRiot

6.

Marx & Engles were much more aligned with today's anarchist movement than they would be with centralized state communism. Because they viewed the state as a tyrannical instrument of centralized and disconnected power.

Honestly, much like how libertarians and anarchists view the state today.

Marx wanted wanted a kind of federated and decentralized society, with workers owning industrial facilities run as nonprofit COOPs.