• Noughmad@programming.dev
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    1 year ago

    “free markets”, the fundamental ideology of capitalism

    Wrong already. The fundamental ideology of capitalism is that people with capital reap the profits (through control of means of production, but also means of living). You can shorten that to “rich get richer”. But nothing related to markets.

    In fact, there were several instances of capitalist economies without a free market. Nazi Germany comes to mind - the government bought weapons, supplies, and everything else, but they were contracted from private corporations controlled only by “desirable” individuals. Other wartime economies apply here too, to a lesser degree - with rationing but still private ownership.

    And yes, capitalists are always afraid of a genuinely free market, because they don’t want competition.

    • captcha [any]@hexbear.net
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      1 year ago

      The fundamental ideology of capitalism is that people with capital reap the profits

      That’s not an ideology. That’s the actual material conditions of capitalism. An ideology exists in people’s minds. Its the justification for those material conditions. The capitalist justification is “the freer the markets the freer the people”. Sometimes people see through that bullshit and they adopt a new ideology, usually some variant of fascism.

      The Nazi’s and many fascists will cannibalize sectors of the market that dont get along with the new regime. This isn’t a particularly novel observation.

      Its like you understand that everything the capitalists told you is bullshit but you still want the fake goal they set up. So you kept the label of “free market” and slapped it on “well regulated market” and are pretending like you’ve done some clever judo. Everyone will call you a market socialist because that’s what you want.

      • Noughmad@programming.dev
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        1 year ago

        Everyone will call you a market socialist because that’s what you want.

        Yes.

        And despite all your railing against anything resembling a free market, I still don’t see any downsides of that.