15:34
Britain needed the Countries that supplied its Resources to be Non Democratic
Yeah. I well I think two things I think first of all the idea that capitalism the postwar capitalism was kind of the best model. I think that is something that you can only really say from the perspective of Europe and North America.
that those conditions in Europe and North America was heavily reliant upon
the emiseration of people in the global south. You know, the NHS was built off
of cheap migrant labor and also the rents and debts that were taken from
the former colonies. You know, there’s a reason why the same government that built the NHS in Britain basically
thwarted the possibility of there to be a similar kind of social democracy in Iran at the same time because there was kind of there was a mutual
interdependence between that because capitalism had to extract from
somewhere. So I think that’s that kind
Political Systems that Resist Consolidation of Power
I think when it comes to you know any political system can go any economic system can go in in a particular direction I think that that obviously you know no there’s no you can’t design a system that is completely unable that will never ever evolve into something worse but I think this is where you can have systems that do not incline towards consolidating power and this is where the questions around you democratic ownership of workplaces, democratic stake in the economy and also understanding the economy to not be a beast that operates on its own but is a is a political economic system and therefore there has to be democratic systems that override um whatever we are told is the economic lo the logic of a particular economy. So what my argument is that capitalism has in its DNA a much stronger um kind of impulse towards the consolidation of power and and e economic and political power because it is ultimately centered around the concept that a small number of people should own the means of production. Um and that the vast majority of people should be workers who sell their labor to those capitalists. Whereas a kind of a socialist system is tries to kind of have an internal guard rails around by having democratic ownership and saying, you know, we’re not going to have a small number of people own the means of production. The means of production are going to be collective. Now, can forms of power and forms of corruption emerge in that system? Absolutely. But I would say it’s less likely um in one than in the other, which is where it’s actually always been about a small number of people um owning capital and owning the means of production. That’s kind of the definition. Um you can’t have a capitalism where the vast majority of people are owners. Does history show it’s less likely in one than the other? I suppose sort of like actually existing 20th century history. Well, I mean, I would say that I mean, obviously the one that you’re referring to here is is kind of is Russia. Um, I would say that obviously there’s been a there was a lot of experiments with socialism in that post-war era that were like deliberately thwarted. I mean, I can speak to kind of like my own context. You know, my parents grew up in, you know, a social were born into social into a kind of socialism under narcissism and obviously it had it was a dictatorship. It had deep problems within it. But at the same time, there was an economic redistribution program that completely transformed the lives of so many people.
QUESTIONS:
Are there reasons to doubt when the West says it wants its trading partners that are egalitarian, democratic and inclusive? Under what conditions would the West benefit from a well-educated and democratic “Global South?”
Would the West prefer to see a Russia that is a more-democratic value-added economy or a resource exporter under the sway of the West?
Why does power consolidate in Capitalism and Socialism?
How has power consolidated in Russia, as the the Soviet Union dissolved?
How hasa power consolidated in the US since the 1950s?
What’s the difference between a Capitalism in which all workers own the means of production and Socialism?