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Capitalism in theory vs capitalism in practice (lemmy.ml)
submitted 1 year ago by to c/politicalmemes@lemmy.world
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[–] 14 points 1 year ago* (2 children)

If I understand the communist/Marxist take on this, retaining any form of capitalism just allows the reproduction of these circumstances down the line. You stop it in the short term with laws, but if you retain the power of capital then those people just buy elections, buy politicians, etc, and we're back to this scenario again.

I'm not sure I agree with everything involved with communism, but I do agree with their take on this problem. We're going through it right now in the US. We fought, literally shed blood, for the rights we have and the regulations that protect us, and then money comes in and buys a shit government to take it all away.

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  • [–] 6 points 1 year ago* (1 child)

    If I understand the communist/Marxist take on this, retaining any form of capitalism just allows the reproduction of these circumstances down the line.

    It's not even really theoretical. Lenin famously established the New Economic Policy (NEP) which basically allowed capitalism for farmers. As a result some farmers became quite wealthy and this gave them economic power over the communist party officials that were ostensibly overseeing them (Stalin during a tour in the mid-'20s often found his officials living in the houses of "kulaks").

    Stalin of course solved this problem by exterminating the entire class of wealthy peasants - and a whole lot of other people, too, not to mention almost all of the nation's livestock. I guess the lesson here is that only rampant psychopathy can defeat capitalism, which is kind of depressing.

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