• OurToothbrush@lemmy.ml
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          edit-2
          6 days ago

          One of the most basic economic arguments of Marx’s Capital is that 1) firms compete for higher profit margins 2) it is easiest to reduce wages in order to increase margins 3) you only have to pay workers enough that they’re able to, as a whole, maintain your workforce (the available workforce in general can shrink though, especially as automation shrinks the needed size of the workforce)

          Throw in some accumulation by disposession theory(the need to proletarianize the population, separating them from ownership of their own means of subsistence) in order for capitalism to function, and you have good old social murder, the end result of a system designed for efficient accumulation without consideration for human suffering outside the practical consideration of stability.

          Socialism, which is designed to manage the needs of a population through democratic processes, does not have this issue, except in the context of fighting capitalism where accumulation needs to be prioritized to some extent, in order to defend their social project from covert and overt hostility by existing capitalist powers.

          I’ve cited Capital, you only really need the first dozen or so chapters to understand the primary argument. Marx provides detailed figures to cite his arguments. I would also suggest reading about accumulation by dispossession/primitive accumulation, social murder, and siege socialism.

          • मुक्त@lemmy.ml
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            6 days ago

            There is one very basic problem with the source here: Marx is not a capitalist, and,

            Marxist interpretation of capitalist theory ≠ capitalist theory.

            • OurToothbrush@lemmy.ml
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              1
              ·
              6 days ago

              Sure, but it is incentivized by capitalism as a real system that exists and is studied. It doesn’t have to exist in capitalist theory for it to be a real phenomenon that has be empirically proven.

              • मुक्त@lemmy.ml
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                1
                ·
                5 days ago

                if you had to pick one and reject the other, which one of the following would rather you pick :

                • capitalism is a real system with real observable existance
                • capitalism is a system fully in accordance with capitalistic theory.
                  • मुक्त@lemmy.ml
                    link
                    fedilink
                    arrow-up
                    1
                    ·
                    5 days ago

                    Yes.

                    At their heart, both capitalism and marxism are ideologies describing how things “ought to be.” Proponents of either of them seek to influence political decision making around economic decisions, but neither is/was/will be reality.

                    Capitalism postulates that all capital ought to be privately owned and working in individual interest, while communism postulates that bulk of capital ought to be institutionally owned but working for public interest.

                    Capitalists believe that capital is most efficiently allocated (returns most value) when its owner spends it for his own benefit, rather than spending it on benefit of others, and that growth of any economy is maximum when capital is allocated most efficiently.

                    Communists dismiss this by pointing out that inequal access to capital causes internal problems in society, which ultimately culminates to violence aiming to change the capital allocation system into more equal one.

                    Communism predicts the end of capitalism, while later flavours of capitalism do the same for communism.