[ExI] chinese fires, was:RE: book review

[Will Steinberg]

That's another thing that kinda bugged me, Spike--the way you were talking
about Marxism made it seem like you were conflating it with
authoritarianism.  Marxism isn't even a form of government it's just a way
to analyze history and society. And communism too is an economic mode, not
a government system.  It just means the workers own the factory/tools
instead of renting them from corporations for the cost of most of the value
of their labor.

There is legitimate economic deadweight loss from the monopolization of the
means of production.  So much extra money could go into the actual economy
instead of the coffers of the few, if workers were paid closer to what
their labor is worth.  If each worker or group of workers owns the means of
production, market forces will lead to both higher wages for workers and
lower prices for goods because the vampire class is no longer making the
economy less efficient by charging exorbitant rent for the ability to
work.

I like a roughly anarcho-communist model, federated, with trade between the
communes.  I believe competition is very important and impossible to get
rid of, but I also think workers should either own the means of production
or get paid a hell of a lot more.  People should be paid what their labor
is worth, less further production and transport costs.  Right now the
minimum wage has stagnated while inflation continues, leading to over 20%
lower wages in real terms.   Yet the products sold by the companies using
that labor DO increase in price with inflation.  That 20% was essentially
stolen by the companies.  Nothing changed; there was no merit leading to a
deserving of that extra money for the owners.  It's pure loss of economic
efficiency at the expense of the working class.  I'm very pro small
business but there's no excuse for the pilfering of the workers' labor
value for no reason other than "I want that money!"
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