I just realized I need to read Marx’s Capital

I have already realized how important it is to be able to undestand Capitalism before you can argue for the need for socialism. That is because one needs to be able to show that Capitalism is flawed, breeding exploitation and inequality and against that Economists Engineers Capitalism proponents will be more than glad to argue.

One of the most classic and basic arguments I hear to this regard is that the Labour Theory of Value is obsolete and irrelevant. That Marx got it all wrong and that Neoclassical economics and especially the Austrian school have shown

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Posted at 5pm on 04/01/09 | Comments : Comments | Filed Under: SocioPolitical, Videos

Does Communism need a State?

Moscow State University
Image by Eldar via Flickr

The Barefoot Bum takes a look at the concept of the State under Communism and discovers that there will be a need to retain some form of a state instrument, in order to both maintain balance so as to avoid negative effects from failed Prisoners Dilemma outcomes and also to have a central planning in order to provide long-term planning and guide complex manufacturing.

The later part

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Posted at 3am on 04/01/09 | Comments : Comments | Filed Under: SocioPolitical

My comments elsewhere

Zoulapia

  • 03.01 Quote of the day: Rise to the Top

    Quoth Julian Edney

    But the chances of a person born poor climbing all five classes into the top (”making it”)[...]are too small to constitute a real freedom.[...], one sociologist puts the upper class at roughly 3 percent of the population. About 7.7% of that has moved in from below – a minute, and historically persistent, figure.[...]But the trick of flaunting possibility to mask actual probability is not a casual device.

    (h/t to the Barefoot Bum)

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  • 24.12 Quote of the Day: Fables

    Quoth David Willey of BBC news

    The priest said he had never intended to hurt anyone, but it was his duty to distinguish the reality of Jesus from the story of Father Christmas which was a fable just like Cinderella or Snow White.

    The Irony! It burnssss

  • 21.12 Quote of the day: Knowledge before Expertise

    Quoth Isaac Puente

    We are asked from the outset to come up with a flawless system, to guarantee that things will work this way and not that, without mishap or error. If learning to live had to be done this way, then our apprenticeship would never end. Nor would the child ever learn to walk, nor the youngster to ride a bicycle.

    This is a classic gripe I have with people inquiring or criticizing communism with me. They ask me to provide a perfect answer for every question they have, and when they can think of holes in my replies, they ask more. If I refuse to keep playing this game, they point this out as proof of an obviously poor-thought system.

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