1d ago

What's the difference between actual capitalism and what people refer to as state capitalism?

We can look at the question from the following perspective. If we accept the premise that China operates under state capitalism, what implications does that hold? At its core, capitalism is defined by private ownership of capital, where individuals or entities control labor’s objectives and structure. Enterprises under this system exist primarily to expand their owners’ wealth, with any societal benefits emerging only as incidental byproducts.

State-owned industries, however, serve a fundamentally different purpose, even if their organizational structure superficially mirrors private enterprises. Their primary aim is to mobilize labor toward socially beneficial objectives such as constructing infrastructure, expanding housing, ensuring food security, and similar public goods. Crucially, capital accumulation by private individuals is absent in this model. Profits generated by state industries are reinvested directly into public services, infrastructure, and long-term national development.

While valid critiques can be made about organization of SOEs or potential worker alienation within their hierarchies, the system’s focus on collective welfare, rather than private profit, makes it fundamentally different from actual capitalism. When evaluated by its capacity to prioritize societal needs over individual wealth extraction, this framework is clearly superior.

6 comments

It is funny how left anticommunists like CAT have such a hard time with simple arguments and avoid engaging the facts. Reminds of Michael Parenti's essay on Left Anticommunism and the unfalsibiable doctrine
Many on the U.S. Left have exhibited a Soviet bashing and Red baiting that matches anything on the Right in its enmity and crudity.
When will it be the day where they actually support anti imperialist struggle instead of disorganization?
Red-baiting leftists contributed their share to the climate of hostility that has given U.S. leaders such a free hand in waging hot and cold wars against communist countries and which even today makes a progressive or even liberal agenda difficult to promote.
- What's interesting is that CAT is apparently a supporter of the DPRK. Their insistence on dodging the "One Drop Rule" error in analysis really paints their whole issue in a nutshell, which stems from a lack of thorough understanding of Dialectical thinking.
  
  I wonder if they will keep supporting the DPRK after knowing what the Rason Special Economic Zone is. 🤔

Their primary aim is to mobilize labor toward socially beneficial objectives
Debatable, and certainly not necessarily true. Fascism can also feature state-owned industries, or at least all industry is considered subordinate to the state. Even if the leaders have good intentions, their priorities may not align with the general populace. The way I see it, the workers do not own the means of production; the state does. Having single-party rule, high levels of censorship, and being generally authoritarian makes things even more problematic, because it hurts the argument that, "the workers own the state, so it's socialism."
- The important factor to test is whether the Proletariat has power, or the Bourgeoisie. Single-party rule does not mean a system is anti-democratic, what matters is if you can actually influence policy and engage with the party, or if the bourgeoisie is the class that can and does do that. As for "authoritarianism" and "censorship," all states do that, what matters is which class is wielding it against which.

6 comments