#liberal #anticapitalism

An #EconomicDemocracy is a market economy where most firms are structured as #WorkerCoops.

#liberalism
#coops #cooperatives

  • 7 Posts
  • 57 Comments
Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: July 18th, 2023

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  • J Lou@mastodon.socialtoMemes@lemmy.ml*Permanently Deleted*
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    1 year ago

    LVT taxing the empty lot next door at the same rate as a multimillion dollar hotel is exactly what makes it so efficiency enhancing because it give land owners economic incentives to use their land productively rather than just holding it and waiting for it to appreciate in value. With LVT, prices would exclude the value of the land.

    LVT can be combined with other policies and taxes. You have to look at the whole package of policies to determine progressivity. LVT+UBI is progressive


  • J Lou@mastodon.socialtoMemes@lemmy.ml*Permanently Deleted*
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    1 year ago

    It meets the definition of a progressive tax.

    The broader Georgist program involves aggressive taxation of government-granted monopolies like IP, which both Musk and Bezos are indirectly beneficiaries of.

    LVT is 1 policy meant to solve 1 problem. It can be combined with other policies that address other problems.

    The labor theory of property, a negative application of which provides a moral rationale for LVT, also provides a justification for an inalienable right to worker democracy


  • J Lou@mastodon.socialtoMemes@lemmy.ml*Permanently Deleted*
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    1 year ago

    Land value tax is progressive. Due to land’s inelastic supply, this tax cannot be passed on to others. People that own lots of land bear the entire burden of the tax. Charging for unimproved land value encourages building denser on more valuable land. This increases housing supply thus making housing more affordable

    LVT is 1 policy. It can be combined with other policies. LVT is not an avoidable tax


  • Private ownership of labor implies the ability to alienate and transfer it for present or future benefits. Such a procedure is not possible because labor is de facto non-transferable. People can have private ownership over the products of labor, but they cannot own their labor because labor is inalienably theirs





  • The whole product is the legal rights to the produced outputs and the liabilities for the used-up inputs not value. The employer legally owns the outputs and is legally liable for the used-up inputs.
    FOSS can use quadratic funding. Not arguing for complete market abolition.
    The workers are de facto responsible for production. By the principle that legal and de facto responsibility should match, the workers should jointly receive the whole product of the firm. The workers can delegate in a coop


  • J Lou@mastodon.socialtoMemes@lemmy.mlCommon Marx W
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    1 year ago

    Marx thought that control rights over the firm were attached to ownership of capital rather than being logically separately acquired in the employer-employee relationship.

    “It is not because he is a leader of industry that a man is a capitalist; on the contrary, he is a leader of industry because he is a capitalist. The leadership of industry is an attribute of capital, just as in feudal times the functions of general and judge were attributes of landed property.” – Marx


  • J Lou@mastodon.socialtoMemes@lemmy.mlCommon Marx W
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    1 year ago

    Marx made mistakes though. For example, he assumed that the right of appropriating the whole product of a firm and control rights to direct the workers in the firm were attached to the ownership of capital. In reality, capital can be rented out just as labor can be hired. It is really the employer-employee contract that is at the core of capitalist appropriation. Ownership of capital just increases bargaining power to get favorable contract terms such as the employer contractual role



  • The latter problem could be solved by banning having non-member workers at the legal level and requiring giving workers voting rights in the firm they work in.

    Worker coops don’t behave exactly like for-profit companies. Anti-capitalism is more than just worker democracy. For example, another aspect is common ownership of land and natural resources with fees for use. This would ensure that worker coops factor in environmental costs




  • J Lou@mastodon.socialtoMemes@lemmy.mlIts getting old.
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    1 year ago

    This touches on the concept of an inalienable right, which is a right that the holder cannot give up even with consent because to give up that right would, in effect, put the holder in the legal position of a non-person contradicting their factual personhood. Some rights that are recognized as inalienable in many countries are political voting rights and the right to a lifetime of labor. A free market does not require that all human rights be alienable


  • J Lou@mastodon.socialtoMemes@lemmy.mlIts getting old.
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    1 year ago

    This point is even stronger if you look at property rights instead of value. The workers in a capitalist firm jointly receive 0% of the property rights to the produced outputs and 0% of the liabilities for the used-up inputs while the employer receives 100% and legally owns the produced outputs and legally owes the liabilities for the used-up inputs. This is a violation of the moral principle that legal and de facto responsibility should match




  • J Lou@mastodon.socialtoMemes@lemmy.mleat the rich
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    1 year ago

    Worker coops are a good thing because unlike employer-employee-based firms they don’t violate workers’ inalienable rights. The justification is a principled ethical argument.

    The workers’ voting shares should be inalienable and attached to the functional role of working in the firm. The employer-employee contract would be abolished, so there would be no mechanism within the legal system for having a capitalist firm.

    An inalienable right is one that the holder cannot give up even with consent


  • J Lou@mastodon.socialtoMemes@lemmy.mleat the rich
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    1 year ago

    I never said anything about removing money.

    What you are talking about is called social capital accumulation, which is a problem in any system.

    A justification for worker coops is the moral principle of assigning legal responsibility to the de facto responsible party. In an employer-employee relationship, the employer receives 100% of the legal responsibility despite the employee being inextricably co-responsible. This violates the aforementioned principle