this post was submitted on 15 Oct 2023
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Simply believing in something doesn't make it viable. You have to look at the history of cooperatives, how they operate under capitalism, and how they fare against capitalist companies. People have been trying to achieve what you're proposing for many decades with little to show for it. You need to address why that is and why you're so convinced that it can be different given all the evidence to the contrary.
The other aspect you need to consider is that capitalist companies will always have an advantage over cooperatives because they are much more willing to exploit the workers. The willingness to exploit allows the company to increase profit and market share, so competition fundamentally favors such companies. While you could argue that workers would prefer to join cooperatives, reserve army of labour ensures that there are always enough workers to go around. And of course, traditional companies can always temporarily improve their working conditions to run a cooperative out of business. We even see this dynamic with traditional companies competing.
Meanwhile, competition is perfectly possible under the communist model. For example, USSR had plenty of different design bureaus that would compete with each other. The difference was that it was friendly competition, and results were shared. The system was more efficient than capitalist competition as evidenced by USSR leading the space race.
Communism is prevented by people buying into the current capitalist model. Traditionally this has been the case because the standard of living in the west was relatively high due to the fact that most brutal exploitation was done in the countries the west subjugates. However, we are now reaching the stage of capitalism where exploitation is turning inward and people in the core of the empire are seeing their living standards deteriorate. As this process continues going forward, more and more people will reject the system.
Communists understand the inherent self destructive dynamic of capitalism and that you can't just paper over these problems with cooperatives.
Cooperatives don't have to pay owners nor a management layer. Workers also shouldn't slack. These advantages should overcome the benefits of exploitation.
Ussr won space race and lost the microchip race. The availability of cad systems created a big advantage.
Capitalism is not inherently self destructive. Exponential growth is only needed if all investors should succeed. That's not necessary.
Capitalism will thrive when times get tough because the majority will choose to compete instead of cooperate. Cooperatives could create space for those who want to cooperate.
Cooperatives still need a management layer just like any other large organization. Meanwhile, the reason that cooperatives don't have to pay owners is also the reason cooperatives are unable to get the initial investment.
You keep repeating here that the advantages of coops should overcome exploitation, but the reality is that they don't. We have over a century of history showing this. You just keep ignoring the elephant in the room here and repeating over and over how you think this shouldn't be the case, while it demonstrably is.
I'm not sure what this has to do with the point regarding competition and innovation under a communist system. USSR could demonstrably innovate, and was doing so better than the west in many areas.
Yes, it actually is and many books have been written on this subject over the years. It's not just the exponential growth that's the problem, it's the whole capitalist competition which leads to capital concentration and monopolies. Capitalism isn't a stable system. Winners of competition grow, and they become harder to compete with because it takes increasingly more initial capital to do so. A scrappy startup isn't going to take on Amazon for example. And even in cases where new companies do better, the established ones can simply buy them out.
Based on the actual history of capitalism it does not thrive in tough times. Once again, I implore you to learn some actual history instead of just making things up. Spend some time to educate yourself.
Why do cooperatives need a management layer? Does communism need management?
Every large organization needs management. When large groups of people organize to do complex tasks, then the work needs to be coordinated in some way. Highly recommend reading this short explanation of why management is needed https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1872/10/authority.htm
The other text mentioned the state machine. Do communists distinguish between the necessities of that state machine and the capitalist class' dictatorship? The repressive capitalist state, how much is it just a consequence of the authority of the state machine?
Yes, communists distinguish between the state machine and the class who holds power. The problem communists have with the capitalist state is that it's built by the capital owning class in its own interests. Communists think that the working class has to build its own state machine that serves the interests of the workers.
Once again, if you actually study history, you will see that state style organization arises regardless of the political system, and societies that use this sort of organization outcompete those that don't. Communists aren't uptopians, we want tangible and practical improvements in the realm of the possible.
The difference to regular businesses is that management as a class doesn't require higher compensation. Similarly, the owners of the cooperative don't want to be compensated when they don't want to be part of the capitalist class.
This, together with the members being motivated workers, gives cooperatives room to compete with regular businesses.
I understand how cooperatives work, the point you continue to ignore is that none of what you say is seen working in practice despite over a century of people trying to compete with traditional business model under capitalism. Cooperative organization would work perfectly fine after the capitalist system is overthrown however.