this post was submitted on 03 Nov 2023
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The capital pays for the labour, unless you have people who can work for free.
Within the confines of capitalism I would probably agree. But under socialism, production happens independently of capital accumulation.
Yeah right. Capital accumulation just comes via bribes instead. Corruption was rife in communist countries
FTFY
But moreso where there's no opportunity to make money
That's a pretty drastic statement to make without evidence
https://www.transparency.org/en/cpi/2022
Clearly demonstrates that market socialist and hardcore capitalist countries like Denmark, Switzerland and Singapore are the least corrupt.
Okay but the bottom 5 are all capitalist countries.
Even if that wasn't the case, just linking a corruption index doesn't prove your original statement:
Edit: since you've edited and added words, let me add:
I would even go as far as to say that your evidence in fact suggests rather the opposite trend: countries where wealth is more equitably distributed have lower rates of corruption
https://www.wilsoncenter.org/event/the-system-made-me-do-it-corruption-post-communist-societies
Are you aware that this is an article about how the poorly managed transition to capitalism allowed highly concentrated wealth and power, and thus corruption?
Yeah the "postcommunist" is a very difficult word and the guy couldn't understand the meaning. He thought that it might have something to do with the post office
While certainly capitalist, Denmark and Sweden use the nordic model which tends to lean pretty social-democrat/welfare-state.
Not to mention, much of bribery under capitalist states is legalized and codified. For example, I'm guessing their study didn't consider Super-PACs as a form of corruption or bribery. Even though that's clearly what they are.
Lol, there's plenty of opportunity to make money under socialism. You just have to do the labor. Under capitalism, however, there exists opportunity to derive money from other people's surplus labor value, for example, I can pay a worker $4 to make a thing that requires $1 in supplies and sell that for $10. That difference of $5 is stolen surplus value from the laborer. Socialists seek to abolish this parasitic relationship.
Even if we suppose that's true, you're still failing to illustrate how capital is necessary for production under socialism.
Maybe we should start with what you mean by capital
Given the context of the meme being a picture of Karl Marx, I was using the Marxist definition of capital. Marxists.org provides a pretty digestible definition: https://www.marxists.org/glossary/terms/c/a.htm
Ok good. So capital is required for capex and opex.
As you start with 0 sales you need to get capital from investors to fund you until sales >1
Yes, that is how it works under capitalism.
Under socialism however, the state funds labor based on needs and/or desires for the output of that labor (the commodity). In this case, the money isn't used for the goal of making more money, therefore, this isn't capital at all. And yet, the labor happens and the commodity created. Therefore, the production is independent of the capital.