Nate Cull (.social)Apr 14, 2017

A reason I'm not a hugely political activist is that I feel quite conflicted about the fundamental political principles of both today's Left and Right.

Like, I feel I deeply get Marx and Piketty's critique of capital, that it accumulates and disempowers all but a few. I've seen that happen before my eyes over the life of the Internet.

But also I get the capitalist's desire for personal freedom, to have something YOU own and can make better.

What I don't agree with is owning people's labour.

Show threadsquinkyApr 14, 2017
@natecull Read F.A Hayek's stuff. The guy predicted bitcoin and provided major insight into economic calculation problems in Socialism that would lead to its downfall, but was also critical of Keynesianism's love of endless banker bailouts. He's very difficult to read though, which is probably why he isn't more popular.
Show threadNate Cull (.social)

@squinky I've read Hayek and unfortunately I don't agree with him. His version of libertarian pure capitalism is the kind that's coming apart, in my opinion.

It leads to concentration of power in landlords and large companies that might as well be states, and then we're back to feudalism - since customers and workers have no voting power on the board.

Apr 14, 2017 at 6:37amWeb
Show threadsquinkyApr 14, 2017
@natecull You should at least understand the critical problem of socialist calculation with respect to creating and using goods of higher orders. I.E How to use a resource that is not directly consumable, such as a freight railroad, a lathe or a backhoe? What does one choose to build with these things? This was the fundamental problem with socialism. It was very hard to make these decisions without money. Read "Economic Calculation In the Socialist Commonwealth" for more.
Show threadNate Cull (.social)Apr 14, 2017

@squinky Sadly it's also hard to make these decisions *with* money - the financial capitalism world is quite obviously misallocating trillions of dollars of funding towards - at best - trivia, and at worst, building systems actively hostile to human community and biological life.

I agree that central planning has big drawbacks. That's one reason why I'm saddened to see the rise of large corporations which employ such planning to move markets.

Show threadsquinkyApr 14, 2017
@natecull The Chinese model is interesting. The banks make bad decisions all the time, but the gov bails out the bad loans continuously with debt free money they print themselves. They prevent moral hazard and cronyism through severe penalties for financial fraud, up to and including execution. They also direct the bank lending policy very closely, telling banks which sectors to invest in and which to not invest in. It's almost partially privatized central planning.