• Flying Squid@lemmy.world
    131·
    7 months ago

    Cuba makes a huge amount of money from the tourism industry and it doesn’t all get redistributed to the people according to their needs. Just because a country calls itself a communist country doesn’t mean it’s true. Believe it or not, the DPRK is not actually democratic or a republic.

    • Cowbee [he/him]@lemmy.ml
      11·
      7 months ago

      Cuba is absolutely a Socialist country. The vast majority of industry is centrally planned by the state. There have been some market reforms to help participate in the global economy after the dissolution of the USSR, but there isn’t a Borgeoisie class in power.

      This is ideological purity taken beyond rational extremes, if you believe any amount of Capitalism in a country is sufficient to call it Capitalist, then you would disagree with Marx, who advocated for gradually building up the productive forces so that Communism can be meaningfully achieved, and which also requires global Socialism.

    • DreamlandLividity@lemmy.world
      115·
      7 months ago

      Let me tell you a little secret (that is a lie, it just basic logic). The reason every “communist country” is in name only is because a real one can’t exist. Not for any real length of time anyway. As long as the system requires humans to make decisions, they will make selfish decisions. And socialism just make it so much easier for few decision makers to take all the power.

        • DreamlandLividity@lemmy.world
          14·
          7 months ago

          Both. It applies to both if they are at the extreme end. Socialism has extra steps.

          And to be absolutely clear, I mean socialism with no capitalistic elements. An in the middle system is what I am advocating from the start.

            • DreamlandLividity@lemmy.world
              11·
              7 months ago

              The greedy motivations of decision makers being aligned with prosperity for the people and separated from lawmaking power.

              How do you make a successful company? Sell good cheap things to the people. You get filthy rich, but people have good cheap products to buy that would not exist otherwise. And they get their share in form of wages.

              Government needs to be separate to be able to legislate worker protections such as minimal wage, work safety, etc.

              • Cowbee [he/him]@lemmy.ml
                1·
                7 months ago

                Are you under the impression that in Socialism, economic planning is done without the participation of the Proletariat? That’s nonsense.

                Secondly, products do not need to be good to make a profit, hence the process of enshittification. Workers also get less than their share, they make all of the Value but the Capitalist entitles themselves to the bulk of that Value.

                Government does not need to be separate. This is nothing but vibes based analysis.

                • DreamlandLividity@lemmy.world
                  11·
                  7 months ago

                  https://lemmy.world/comment/9597138

                  If the proletariat participates, the values are misaligned the other way. See thread above.

                  As for whether products need to be good, there are two caveats. In most cases of enshittification online, you are mistaking what is the product. The advertisers are the customers that pay, users are the product.

                  The other caveat is anti-competitive and anti-consumer practices which is one of the many reasons why you need independent government to regulate those.

                  • Cowbee [he/him]@lemmy.ml
                    1·
                    7 months ago

                    You have not backed up that “the values are misaligned the other way.” It is better for production to serve all of humanity, rather than an elite class of owners.

                    Enshittification happens all the time. Over time, Capitalists try to squeeze as much profit out of as little investment as possible, which usually takes the form of cost cutting in materials and increased exploitation. The fashion industry is a great example of this, and is part of why vintage fashion is popular right now.

                    All in all, you’re still entitely vibes-based.

      • Cowbee [he/him]@lemmy.ml
        21·
        7 months ago

        Why would “making selfish decisions” be worse in a collectively owned system where industry is run by the public, than in a Capitalist system where the only decisions made are selfish ones?

        What kind of purely vibes-based analysis is this?