Clara Mattei: capitalism is not natural - it’s enforced

"Clara Mattei is an author and professor of economics whose work explores how economic ideas become tools of power, shaping policy while masking the political decisions beneath.

Her new book, Escape from Capitalism, argues that many of the problems that we see as inevitable - poverty, unemployment, inflation - are built into the system and shored up by models and theories designed to convince us that there is no alternative.

On this episode of Ways to Change the World, Krishnan Guru-Murthy speaks to Mattei about whether there is an alternative to capitalism."

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9M_dq_0ljsc

#Capitalism #AntiCapitalism #democracy #ABetterWorldIsPossible #economics #inequality #Austerity

Clara Mattei: capitalism is not natural - it’s enforced

"Clara Mattei is an author and professor of economics whose work explores how economic ideas become tools of power, shaping policy while masking the political decisions beneath.

Her new book, Escape from Capitalism, argues that many of the problems that we see as inevitable - poverty, unemployment, inflation - are built into the system and shored up by models and theories designed to convince us that there is no alternative.

On this episode of Ways to Change the World, Krishnan Guru-Murthy speaks to Mattei about whether there is an alternative to capitalism."

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9M_dq_0ljsc

#Capitalism #AntiCapitalism #democracy #ABetterWorldIsPossible #economics #inequality #Austerity

The 'It wasn't real communism' argument is getting old. The Russian experiment showed that even the best theories turn into bureaucratic nightmares when human nature gets involved. The bosses changed, but the hierarchy remained. 🚩
#PoliticalTheory #Politics #Ideology #Economics #Totalitarianism

https://capitalaspower.com/2021/05/cherizola-from-commodities-to-assets/

The "Capital as Power" approach has a lot of extremely good properties. This paper discusses the role of assets and how they should inform our understanding of capitalist economics. Pretty great so far (I'm about 1/3 of the way through)

#economics #capitalism

https://capitalaspower.com/2021/05/cherizola-from-commodities-to-assets/

The "Capital as Power" approach has a lot of extremely good properties. This paper discusses the role of assets and how they should inform our understanding of capitalist economics. Pretty great so far (I'm about 1/3 of the way through)

#economics #capitalism

The vaunted 'Free Market' is largely a fraud. In order to have a true free market two conditions need to be met:

1) New vendors need to realistically enter the market.

2) Consumers need to realistically be able to not just choose between vendors but to be able to walk away from any purchase and forgo the product/service

The rise of the #oligarchs demonstrates how condition 1 fails to be met. Consolidation of businesses under #capitalism inevitably results in the entry cost for any new vendor becoming unrealistically high, leaving a few large companies to dominate the market.

Condition 2 is an even more egregious violation. Consumers can not realistically walk away from purchasing essentials (food, housing, internet, etc) and thus are not participating in a free market but a compelled market.

Thus it is best for essentials to operate under a planned economy with society as a whole operating under a hybrid economy with a private sector only existing where both conditions can be fulfilled.

#economics

Thanks to @HeavenlyPossum I was turned on two these two #anarchist #economics academics.

https://capitalaspower.com/2023/01/bichler-nitzan-the-business-of-strategic-sabotage-2/

In this article, they argue that although we think of businesses as being "in an industry" like "Trek is in the Bicycle industry" the concept of Industry and of Business are not only separate... they are opposite!

I'll explain why I think this is a key insight in a thread.

The vaunted 'Free Market' is largely a fraud. In order to have a true free market two conditions need to be met:

1) New vendors need to realistically enter the market.

2) Consumers need to realistically be able to not just choose between vendors but to be able to walk away from any purchase and forgo the product/service

The rise of the #oligarchs demonstrates how condition 1 fails to be met. Consolidation of businesses under #capitalism inevitably results in the entry cost for any new vendor becoming unrealistically high, leaving a few large companies to dominate the market.

Condition 2 is an even more egregious violation. Consumers can not realistically walk away from purchasing essentials (food, housing, internet, etc) and thus are not participating in a free market but a compelled market.

Thus it is best for essentials to operate under a planned economy with society as a whole operating under a hybrid economy with a private sector only existing where both conditions can be fulfilled.

#economics