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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: June 14th, 2023

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  • Every national economy has some planned parts (utilities and ag in the U.S., for example). Most less-planned capitalist economies don’t work, either – what has capitalism done for the vast majority of people in Latin America, Asia, and Africa?

    China is a major example of a more-planned economy working as well as any economy in recorded history. About two-thirds of the economy is in the form of state-owned enterprises, the rest of the economy is firmly answerable to the government, and there’s top-down economic planning at regular intervals. In 75 years this has taken China from a mostly feudal society that had been carved up by various invaders for the previous century to a country with modern living standards and technology on par with anyone in the world.

    Central planning is also at the core of the largest companies in the world, even ones that operate outside of significant state economic planning. Apple and Microsoft don’t have internal divisions operate on market principles; they plan and direct resource and labor distribution from the top down. The People’s Republic of Walmart is great reading on this last topic.



  • still gotta use capitalism to critique capitalism

    I think there’s an argument to be made that this is the best way to get the message out. A book with a publisher and a famous author gets a lot more attention than a PDF on the internet by someone less notable. And the notoriety of authors – for worse – is tied to your book deal, the media hits your publisher helps attract, and being an in-demand speaker. The theses of any prominent book is readily available in interviews, articles, etc. anyway.

    It’d be better if she donated much of her earnings to a worthwhile cause, but for all I know she does.