Socialist Ends by Market Means: A History
3 days ago
- #market-socialism
- #mutualism
- #libertarian-socialism
- The text explores the concept of achieving socialist goals (equality, labor empowerment) through market mechanisms rather than state control, termed 'socialist ends through market means'.
- Historical roots trace back to Adam Smith's moral markets and critiques of monopolies, later influencing Ricardian socialists who argued labor should receive its full value.
- Karl Marx critiqued capitalist markets as inherently exploitative, advocating for collective ownership over market-based socialism, creating a divide in socialist thought.
- Pierre-Joseph Proudhon introduced mutualism, advocating for decentralized, voluntary market exchanges among worker-owned cooperatives and opposing exploitative property.
- 19th-century American individualist anarchists like Benjamin Tucker expanded mutualist ideas, opposing state-backed monopolies and advocating for worker control via free markets.
- The marginalist revolution in economics shifted focus from labor theory of value to subjective marginal utility, marginalizing mutualist and Marxist critiques of capitalism.
- 20th-century ideological polarization between state socialism and corporate capitalism left little space for market-based socialist alternatives, though small movements persisted.
- Recent revivals by left-libertarians (e.g., Kevin Carson) argue that truly free markets, stripped of state-granted privileges, would naturally decentralize economic power.
- Challenges to the philosophy's prominence include semantic polarization, lack of political allies, and absence of large-scale implementation models.
- The tradition aligns with American values of liberty, individualism, and anti-monopoly, offering a synthesis of libertarian and socialist ideals.