Markets are fundamentally profit driven, and services like healthcare or housing need to be provided regardless of the profit motive. These are a natural fit for the state owned industries. Where markets can have a role is providing nice to have things that improve general quality of life, but aren't living essentials.
We don't need to reach full automation. We throw away half the food we produce right now, there is more empty housing having been bought up for speculation than there are people in the US or Canada. The problem is with the economic system that fails to distribute according to need. The solution is to ensure that workers are the primary beneficiaries of their own labour as opposed to the oligarchs who own capital.
Liberalism is an ideology with two main parts. First is political liberalism which focuses on individual freedoms, democracy, and human rights. Second is economic liberalism which centers around free markets, private property, and wealth accumulation. These two aspects form a contradiction. Political liberalism purports to support everyone’s freedom, while economic liberalism enshrines private property rights as sacred in laws and constitutions, effectively removing them from political debate.
Liberalism justifies the use of state violence to safeguard property rights even when they come into direct conflict with providing necessities such as food, shelter, and healthcare. The idea that private property is a key part of individual freedom provides the foundational justification for the rich to keep their wealth while ignoring the needs of everyone else. Thus, all the talk of promoting freedom and democracy is nothing more than a fig leaf to provide cover for justifying capitalist relations.
This is an excellent primer on the subject https://orgrad.wordpress.com/articles/liberalism-the-two-faced-tyranny-of-wealth/
Basically, China is a command economy where markets are used as allocators. The goals are decided by the state, and markets are used to figure out how to move resources around efficiently to achieve these goals.
a highly relatable scenario :)
fair
I'd argue we shouldn't base our whole society on consumption in the first place.
both waste and unsustainable resource consumption are equally problematic
That is a fair point, it looks like China will dominate the new space race and that's definitely a better option for humanity.
haha, although technically they do have flying cars in China now https://engineerine.com/chinas-flying-taxis/
To be fair, if the Soviets won then we likely wouldn't be facing a climate crisis either.
Not only are you creating a false dichotomy here, but you're ignoring the fact that Trump coming to power is itself is a direct product of decades of liberal policies.