I would just add that the words capitalism and socialism are both toxic – for different reasons. They need to be scuttled with nouns/descriptions which are 21st century and don't carry the heavy luggage associated with those 19th century terms.
Certainly fails to achieve the workplace democracy aspect that is so tempting about market socialism, but I wonder if this makes for a decent argument for a truly enormous SWF + UBI as an alternative. Rather than trying to make every worker a partial owner of the firm they work in, just make the public a substantial stakeholder in the *entire economy.* It isn't socialism, but it is something.
Here's a different argument. Capitalism is not stopping anyone from building a coop today. Of coops were market efficient, the economy would be flooded with them. The fact that they are not prevalent indicates that something is bad about them except in some rare circumstances.
Very well thought out and presented!
I would just add that the words capitalism and socialism are both toxic – for different reasons. They need to be scuttled with nouns/descriptions which are 21st century and don't carry the heavy luggage associated with those 19th century terms.
Certainly fails to achieve the workplace democracy aspect that is so tempting about market socialism, but I wonder if this makes for a decent argument for a truly enormous SWF + UBI as an alternative. Rather than trying to make every worker a partial owner of the firm they work in, just make the public a substantial stakeholder in the *entire economy.* It isn't socialism, but it is something.
I think that’s a far more reasonable position. I will be writing about it in a future part!
Great post, Micah!
Here's a different argument. Capitalism is not stopping anyone from building a coop today. Of coops were market efficient, the economy would be flooded with them. The fact that they are not prevalent indicates that something is bad about them except in some rare circumstances.