Market socialism is a type of economy system that means of production are owned by state or the worker class and the products are sold in the market. A happy medium for radical theories of capitalism and socialism, it’s attacked by all.
The difference between socialism and capitalism
Capitalism and socialism are two opposite economic system theories that are not realized in anywhere due to their radical status. They’re like two opposite sides of a building, proponents look at the other sides and describe there, however in reality there’s an ontological body with different dimensions, different from their one sided perception. The contrast between these two sides are simply as follows: The means of production in socialism belong to the state, in capitalism they belong to individuals. In socialism there is a planned economy, in capitalism there is a free market. In socialism, price and income are controlled, in capitalism they are shaped by supply and demand in the market. While there are productivity and innovation problems in socialism, there are inequality and economic crises in capitalism.
In capitalism individuals own the economy, in socialism it’s the state. Both produced tremendous amount of problems. Although the ideal would be collective ownership, it doesn’t work in reality. All socialist governments worked like giant corporations instead of many. The problem here is that people expect simple, direct answers for their questions. Reality is dynamic and uncontrollable, not with these radical simple answers at least. We need to use our minds, constantly and reject reductionist simple answers such as capitalism or socialism. The answer is in the middle, where you have to labor your minds at every moment.
The proposal of market socialism
Market socialism gets the best parts in two radicals, in fact it’s what is going to happen eventually. The rich cannot stand the pressure from the majority; nor socialist states from private enterprise in economy or “other social institutions.” Both have to loosen the control over reality.
As there are different types of socialism such as communism, social democracy, liberal or national; there are different types of market socialism as well. At one point there is conservative market socialism, the state owns everything but it lets the demand determine the prices, on the other hand there is liberal market socialism proposes that through stock markets and regulations the socialism will eventually and naturally be realized.
The primary examples of market socialism are Yugoslavia, late China, Vietnam and Singapore. They saw some success, especially China. It didn’t rely on Maoist simple and precise answers. China added capitalist mechanics to its socialist system and saw its benefits through development. Most of the socialist theorists proposed transitional mechanics from capitalism to socialism, but often they fall prey to reductionist lazy practitioners.
Why not educate people on market and let them own the market?
Instead of corporations or one big socialist corporation, why don’t we give the ownership to nobody? Let every corporation be publicly available and educate people on economy. The state should always act as a mediator and buy the stocks in times of crises. In this way the companies will be owned by people and crises will be under control. We don’t need no revolution or exploitation to exist. We just need not to rush. Individuals want to see the change in their limited lifespan, hence they rush the economic system to be their ideal utopia. The universe has no rush, and if you do, you’ll stumble; as the humanity did before.
One other curious question is why don’t we educate people on economy? The school system indoctrinates anything but how to gain power through economy. It may be the nature of the exploitative system we’re in. Yet it works against everyone and the exploiters. If everyone participated in the market through owning fractional shares of corporations or state funds that invest for them; the amount of value would be far more greater than it’s right now.
The politics is slow to react social crisis, the efficiency of corporations should focus on this issue and even distribute their shares willingly. Otherwise they won’t be able to find consumers, since all jobs are getting automation. Automated factories for whom? Who is going to buy those products but the owners of the factories? Opportunity lies here, millions of consumers can be created through market socialism.
