This is an interesting read, but I would frame the question differently. The question, after all, is what's wrong now and how to fix it. I would say that major problem is excessive extraction of economic rents — land rent, natural resource rent, monopoly and monopsony rent, and financial rent. The trend is toward debt servitude for much of the population. Only the very top and the immiserated bottom
Rent extraction depends on the political power to influence institutional arrangements. The extreme liberal solution (Libertarianism) is to get rid of government through maximum privatization, while the extreme collectivist solution (Communism) is to mandate social, political and economic equality. Neither is practical in my view. The way to proceed is by tacking economic rent.
The question, really, is how to get from here to there. Here is relatively simple to describe in terms of existing statistics. Inequality of wealth, incomes, and class power are off the charts.
Getting "there" necessitates articulating "there." This requires visualizing and actualizing. There is no shared vision at present and therefore no plan for actualizing it. In fact, division of opinion based on conflicting world views runs deep in the US now.
This is going to take a while.
If a chiefly capitalist economic system is desired, then to make it efficient, economic rent must be eliminated by either ex ante, or clawing it away ex post. Preempting it ex ante would be preferable from the systems point of view. Perfect competition in perfect markets would eliminate almost all economic rent ex ante and the rest could be addressed ex post (some unearned gain might result from economies of scale).
This analysis is economic and avoids other issues regarding governance that are social and political. But without addressing economic rent, a good solution cannot be implemented.
I view social democracy as a compromise between capitalism and socialism as economic infrastructure of society. It might be the best we can hope for to resolve the current impasse, but the bipartisan political elite is opposed to it. This is off the table in the coming general election.
Interfluidity
Social democracy and freedom
Steve Randy Waldman
3 comments:
Social democracy exists right now. It's a matter of wresting the lever towards labour.
@ Peter Pan
Social democracy exists now pretty much as a remnant of the New Deal. The establishments of both parties are committed to neoliberalism as the basis for policy and governance.
"The Swedish model" no longer exists in Sweden as it once did and the EU and UK establishments are also committed to neoliberalism.
I would agree that wrestling the lever toward labor would be a good step, but that alone won't do the job. Need to address economic rent and the specifics of rent seeking and rent extraction to move the ball away from its current trajectory. That means addressing "corruption" in a broad sense of aggregating power and wealth rather than petty corruption.
Restore the balance of power between labour and capitol, and those threats can be contained. If labour were all powerful, then workers would become rent-seekers. Without balance, one side overreaches and undermines its sustainability. This can applied to economics or ecology.
Remains to be seen if labour can be a source of countervailing power in an economy shaped by new technologies.
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