Hi! I am a stranger on this instance, I have read a lot of warnings about the “tankie triad”, but wanted to see for myself and keep an open mind.

I watched this video, and it made me want to take a deep dive into socialism/communism, with as much objectivity as I can. https://youtu.be/BeRjTtKFlVM

I understand how capitalism works, and I have doubts that it is a sustainable system for society long term, but social democracy has been a good way of keeping capitalism in-check in Norway. So even if capitalism is not ideal, it is in theory possible to tax the rich more and keep the whole thing going in the future. I also understand the exploitation and the extraction of surplus value, rent seeking etc.

Other capitalist countries such as the US is currently struggling with basic human needs. And that is “the shining beacon of capitalism”.

In Norway it has for a long time been common to use the US as an example of what not to do.

What I am interested in learning is how society would operate and function under socialism / communism. More about the differences. Preferably from less dry sources than The Capital from Marx. Where can I learn more? Preferably a bit entertaining.

It is important to me that it is historically accurate and factually correct.

Look forward to your replies 😊

  • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
    6·
    13 days ago

    The PRC is sometimes described as a Socialist Market Economy. Rather than Market Socialism, which is made up of competing worker cooperatives, a Socialist Market Economy has markets to a degree but is more traditionally Marxist in that it focuses on public ownership of large firms, and lets the smaller ones compete into the size ripe for public ownership. Huawei is a part of the cooperative sector, which makes up a minority of the economy.

    Time for your questions!

    1. Taiwan is ruled by the remnants of the Nationalists that governed China during the Civil War. It’s a bit like if the Confederacy ran to Cuba and maintained itself as the legitimate ruler of the US, all while being propped up by, say, Britain millitarily. I recommend this resource if you want to check out an explicitly pro-PRC stance on it. For what it’s worth, polling in Taiwan largely favors the status quo, not independence nor folding into the PRC.

    2. A big topic. I recommend checking this FAQ, in particular this essay is quite informative. I also recommend this Chinese State Media on the national makeup of the NPC, broken down by various metrics like age and ethnicity.

    3. Term limits are removed, primarily so that Xi Jinping can continue to lead the CPC. This is spun as anti-democratic, but Xi could be deposed if it was democratically demanded, in reality he’s still the leader because he’s overwhelmingly popular. Especially because under him, the PRC has seen growth in the public sector and cooperative sector, and vast poverty elimination campaigns. I recommend reading The Metamorphosis of Yuangudui to see what poverty elimination looks like in reality.

    4. The Winnie the Pooh bits are more popular in the West, as they are racially targeted. Ever wonder why Westerners find it funny to depict a Chinese man as a yellow bear? Hate speech isn’t protected as much in China. There is legitimate criticism of Xi and the party, and there is stuff overblown by Western Media in order to undermine the character of the government.

    Overall, it’s worth noting that over 95% of Chinese citizens approve their government. The study itself even acknowledged censorship and propaganda, yet found that the dramatic uplifting in material conditions was the real driver of public opinion. In reality, China is democratic, just in a different model from Western Countries, and in a manner Western Media takes advantage of to portray China as an outright dictatorship despite more Chinese Citizens feeling they have democratic control than US citizens.

    I’ll leave you with 2 graphics on why Chinese citizens overwhelmingly support their government (and then I have to go to sleep, haha}:

    Let me know if you have any more questions, but at this point I recommend digging into the stuff I recommended earlier (like my Marxist-Leninist reading list ), as it will make a lot of these articles make more sense as they assume to some degree familiarity with Marxism-Leninism (the CPC’s guiding ideology). Thanks for listening!

    • Urist@lemmy.mlEnglish
      3·
      10 days ago

      Thanks, @[email protected] for the usual thorough and detailed answers! Your effort to educate really is deserving of admiration.

      As a fellow Norwegian, @[email protected], I would also point out (not implying that you are in any way unaware) some of the mechanics of how the public sectors in Norway serve the private, and in turn how this undermines the social programs over time.

      In particular we are at a pivotal point with respect to our public healthcare system, where we have over time seen a rise in private clinics, culiminating in the somewhat recent “fritt behandlingsvalg”. In reality, the private healthcare providers serve to siphon resources from the public sector, while to a large degree giving less back to fewer people.

      In the propaganda of the bourgeoisie, private healthcare is good and necessary for dealing with increasing waiting times for treatments. In reality, they are one of the main causes of it. This is why we need to analyze the situation in terms of productive forces.

      1. We are educating doctors and nurses at a steep cost (I think one million kroner a year for each student of medicine per year amounting to six million for a degree).
      2. We have a shortage of people in key sectors such as the public “fastlegeordningen”, with near critical failure looming as the work load increases to a point where no one wants to be a part of this system anymore, due to the personal expense. This is further propagated by the alternative of fewer hours at a greater pay in private alternatives.
      3. The private sector can (over) charge both wealthy people for largely unnecessary treatments as well as hospitals that need to buy their services due to the increased load on the remaining people in the public sector. This answers how they can offer greater pay at fewer hours, by the way.
      4. The private sector only provide treatments that are comparatively simple, leaving the lengthy expensive ones to the public. Additionally, the public sector have to step in whenever complications with regards to a procedure happens, for which the public hospitals take all the cost. See the second point with respect to unnecessary treatments for rich people such as plastic surgery and the recent news for real context.

      All in all, my point was to demonstrate how the private healthcare providers prey on the public ones. This gives them an economical advantage that they in turn can use to increase their own surplus by taking and reducing (buying up) the publicly owned resources that were painstakingly developed by the state for public use.

      I could mention other stuff as well, but what is really, to me, interesting is how the overall production of health services declines due to increasing privatization. At the same time we put in more money from the public, from which the private firms extract the surplus value by design.

      All the while this is happening, the talking points in the political sphere is that private healthcare providers are the solution to the problem of deficient resources (productive forces that is, although it is not said aloud). In my view, this portrays some of the importance on why we need to educate ourselves and learn to analyze the mode of production from a materialist point of view. The how I think @[email protected] already have answered perfectly.

      • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
        3·
        10 days ago

        Thank you so much for your input regarding Norway specifically! I’m in the US, so it’s super helpful to have someone that is more intimately familiar with Norway’s particular struggles in Capitalism weigh in. Great job!