• JakeHimself@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    How do new means of production come to be? Like, if a community really wanted a unicycle repair shop, how would that get started? How would it be decided that we use resources for that shop instead of, say, a pogo stick repair shop? Would that be up to a local government (or some other governing body)? Honest question.

    • SubArcticTundra@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      My country used to have communism. Niche shops like this barely ever started as small businesses and instead usually started out as specialized departments of large all-encompassing state corporations. Instead of there being a company that specialized in making furniture, the furniture would be made by the logging company. The company that ran a chemical plant would directly sell shampoos, paints, toothpaste, fertillizer, etc. It cut out middle men but the products were usually crap quality because it couldn’t focus on each product individually. This stifled progress. My dad wanted to learn programming (this was the late 80s) but because the government was too oldschool to open a computer science degree programme, the only way to get near a computer was to go to a university that specialized in mining and take a programme in mining machine automation.

      • bouh@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Bad management is not the the specialty of communism. In fact, this is a governance problem: is it lead by an idiot and how can people change the lead to solve this problem. Capitalism has this problem currently with governments and companies directions totally unable to do anything about climate change and wealth inequalities.

        People always mistaken dictature or oligarchy with communism unfortunately.

    • masquenox@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      Like, if a community really wanted a unicycle repair shop, how would that get started?

      Pretty much the same way a community would start a co-op right now.

      Would that be up to a local government (or some other governing body)?

      Public participation, of course. The community would form councils, where people would collectively decide whether this is a good idea or not. That literally what the word soviet means - councils of people making decisions (which is why the Bolsheviks hijacked them and turned the word into a cruel joke).

      • RagingRobot@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Well if the state provides funds based on need, we don’t need unicycles or pogo sticks at all so we just wouldn’t have them.

        • masquenox@lemmy.ml
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          1 year ago

          The state is not qualified to decide whether someone needs a pogo stick - neither are billionaire parasites.

    • daninet@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Communism meant that there were equal people and some more equal than others. If you have convinced the right people they got funds to do things. But it is highly burocratic and slow unless instructions come from above. Communism also meant that everyone capable of working must work so they made up many-many bullshit jobs where people just spend time.

      • adibis@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Don’t get why you’re downvoted. Probably all the people who’ve never actually lived in communist states.

      • masquenox@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        Communism meant that there were equal people and some more equal than others

        No, it doesn’t. If that’s what you think, it means Animal Farm went straight over your head.