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Forums - Politics Discussion - Libertarian Socialism is an Oxymoron?

Ruler said:
Leadified said:

Isn't this just a form of social democracy, or in other words: a more democratic form of capitalism?

No its Full Communism or Anarchism, although there were some countries like Yugoslavia who archieved it with a mixture of some state enterprises.

Could you give some examples of what you consider to be "full" communism or anarchism?



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Nirvana_Nut85 said:
sc94597 said:

Now you're being borderline rude.

How so? For clarifying where you are merely making assertions? This is the standard way discourse works. If somebody makes a claim, and does not justify it, you ask them to justify it. If they refuse to justify it again, you tell them that they are merely making assumptions and assertions, not arguments. 

You may want to observe the statements you have provided and realize that they are merely opinions like mine.

I think it is more interesting to think in terms of normative and positive claims than opinion or fact. Certain statements we make are facts (or misfacts) while others pertain to values. It is important to segment them. I was trying to highlight those things which you declare as facts, like "it is a centrally planned economy" or "this contradicts the definition of socialism" rather than your value judgments (which are normative and subjective.) Just saying "they are merely opinions" is not useful, because we are making a mix of testable factual claims and normative (value-based) ones. 

Fancyful claims and pipe dream scenarios as to how your view of a Libertarian Socialist society would operate. I brushed it off when you'd provide a quote or made a statemnt that digressed and did not directly address the argument that I had put forth. Please read your previous comments before critiquing mine. Thank you.

"Fancyful claims and pipe dream scenarios" which you have not addressed. Please point out an argument you've made where you had supporting statements and allusions to economic or social phenomena, rather than mere assertions like "it is a pipe dream." 

What is defined as modern day Libertarianism would not necessarily cancel Mises out  as a founding father of the ideals just because he did not share all the exact same thought as Rothbard or Paul. That would be like making a claim that Basat was not a Liberal due to the different ideology of modern day Liberals. For one who tries to imply that socialist institutions would be applicable in a libertarian society, which detracts from mainline Libertarian thought but would not classify Mises as a founder of ideals is sort of contradictory in my opinion.

I never said it was because Mises didn't believe in things that modern libertarians believe in. In fact, I would count people older than Mises as libertarians, like including Bastiat, because they appealed to the axiom of self-ownership. Mises did not. This does not mean Mises' work isn't valuable to libertarians, but rather than his fundamentals diverge from that of libertarians, and therefore his conclusions do as well.

You can stand by it but it still puts you into the offshoot of anarcho-socialist. For me, Minachists Libertarians like Ron Paul are the form of ideology that defines my view of Libertarianism. Not complete anarchy but still allowing the rights of the individual and less bureacracy in the framework of government, self ownership etc, while maintaining a minimal form of government to protect those rights.

1. I am not a socialist. 2. Can you provide an argument for how one can believe in full self-ownership and also simultaneously believe that the collective in the form of the state can steal from individuals in order to sustain itself. 3. Ron Paul does not disregard anarchism as with no foundation, but rather says that it is too far off. If the choices were between a Nozickian night watchman state and a society where there were no institutional coercion and no monopoly on the use of force, I have no doubt Ron Paul would choose the latter, because he is an voluntaryist. 

Using our current economy is not a weak argument when giving the examples that I have provided. You've never observed a society as one you are trying to argue for and do not have the slightest inclination as to what it would look like without the state. You have claimed that these forms of employment can exist and therefor would eventually be drawn into the "ectasy" that is all forms of mutualism. You are speculating yourself and one giant word of advice is when debating theoretical situations that have not been observed; one should try and not act as if their opinion is superior and denounce another. Just a thought :)

Newsflash: none of us have observed a libertarian society  any form. Not even the United States under the articles of confederation was libertarian (mass  chattel- slavery, property abridgements, etc.) My speculation on what society would look like without the state was based on economic arguments. Whether they are observable or not is irrelevant, because economics (as Mises, Hayek, Rothbard, and pretty much any other austrian economist have argued) is not a positive science. It is a deductive one. 

I agree, and those who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. Remember as I've stated above that we are both simply asuuming and that there is nothing to support our actual arguments besides opinion. I respect your opinion and the effort you've put it but while I don't find it very compelling and more along the lines of a pipe dream, I still treat it with respect.

There is a huge difference between asserting things and arguing your point. I have argued my point sufficiently for a first pass. If you want me to justify any of my premises, do ask, and I will. Again, with the "pipe dream" language. That is distorted, loaded terminology, and really shouldn't be present in a neutral argument. 

I was going to pursue a Masters in financial economics, until I realized that I could create more capital for myself in a shorter period of time by becoming joining the Union (We have fitters who've made upwards of $180,000 in a year). I digress so back to the discussion. Taking an Economics course does not mean that you have any idea as to how it would work, the difficulties and so forth when being applied to real lifeI started If you believe that then you are either giving yourself far to much credit or are naive. I don't mean this offensively but economics gives you the structure of how it works, not the social and personal aspects as well as the relations to employees and how such individuals think. 

We are discussing economics here. We are discussing the potential viability of firms and how they work. There is a large, expansive backlog of literature and knowledge to pull from. Your claim is that "libertarian socialism" is a pipe-dream or unfeasible. That is a question of economics and only answered by economics. Real-world experience is helpful in contextualizing the information, I don't contest that, but we can't do it on real-world experience alone. We must appeal to the rigorous study that has existed in the past. This is what Mises did. This is what Bastiat did. This is what Bohm-Bahwerk did. This is what Friedrich Hayek did. This is what Murray Rothbard did. This is what pretty much every liberal and libertarian has done. 

The question was never about whether libertarian socialism is moral and just. It was always about whether or not it works, and that is the realm of economics. That is why I made an economics-based argument, involve scale factors. 

Yes, you've provided what would be considered a pipe dream of how it would all interact together but without actual observation of the system being applied in reality, at the end of the day it would would be theory. I've given you example of what real life situations would cause the system you are describing how to work. Your implications assume that everyone will willfully work for each other and set aside their own self interests and wants. That is neither rational and lacks common sense. You seem to be much more intelligent than that line of thought so I can't understand why you keep trying to argue it while ignoring reality.

Again, austrian economists don't rely on positive information, but rather on deductive claims. If we are going to go off of what has existed to determine what can work, then we might as well give up on the idea of a free-market, because there never has been one. I never made any assumption or formed any premise that people were not egoistic. In fact, if you cared to inquire further, you'd discover that my arguments were primarily dependent on ethical and psychological egoism, that people tend to look for their own self-interet. Desiring the full products of your labor is quite in line with psychological egoism and self-interest. If I am treated better and I get more product by working in a cooperative firm than a capitalist one, then I am going to choose the cooperative. If the alternative is true, then I will choose the capitalist one. That is pure egoism there. 

The only way to get everyone on board is through coercion. 

How can you make this claim and call yourself a libertarian? Seriously, the only way to get people do things with you is through coercion? Do you stand by this statement after thinking about it?  

I'm assuming some sort of vote amongst the people or planned economic route would have to be put in place for this to happen, therefore applying a form of central planning among the populace. 

Okay, you are assuming this. I made an eleven point argument contesting this assumption. Can you address that argument? Or are you just going to ignore it again? 


At the end of the day, Libertarian Socialism would need to be applied by force as previously explained.

Can you point me in the direction where you "previously explained" this. You made the assumption that it requires central planning, and therefore it requires force. I contested your assumption that it requires central planning. You have not addressed my argument against the assumption. 

The reality is socialistic instituitions are not all that functional and not cost effective in comparison to a Swiss style of healthcare where their is minimal subsidies and the individual pays the insurance.

Don't forget the massive amount of regulations on profits and price ceilings. The Swiss system is not a free-market healthcare system, but I will agree that it is better than single payer. 

Although state run, we already see healthcare instituions like those in Canada being far inferior to the likes of the United States (Ask any Canadian who had health insurance coverage and had something happen to them in the states).

I actually agree with this. How is it relevant to libertarian socialism where health-care would be a good provided on the market and/or in benefit societies? 

The individual is still being forced into the collective as it is nonsensical to believe that all people would just see these instituitons and the way business' ran and decide "lets all jump in".

Nobody made the argument you just strawmanned. My argument assumed self-interest and egoism, not altruism. 

In my opinion as well, especially in terms of the market it would be disasterous. With everyone in each company having a controlling vote as there would be no heirarchy, it creates a scenario that can lead to chaos.

Why exactly is it a bad thing that there would be no hierarchy? Hierarchy is only useful when it is justified. If it can't be justified and people don't vote for it then who cares if it is discarded? One can always leave the company if they don't feel as if their contributions aren't being compensated enough. As for "it creates a scenario that can lead to chaos", people said the same thing when people had the idea to abolish hierarchical absolute monarchies. I hope you see the irony here. 

You would be imposing the will of the populace upon those who wanted to exceed as there will be people you will never convince. You would essentially be taking the rights and freedoms away from the individual.

I already argued that one wouldn't be. People who don't want to work in cooperatives can go start up a capitalist, hierarchical firm. If they can't find workers to work for them, how exactly is that force?

This whole argument is technically null and void based on this one statement you have made

" If that does not happen, then libertarian socialists aren't going to force it to happen. They'd be content experiencing socialism for themselves."

Then you would not have a Libertarian Socialist society. Plain and simple. Should have carefully thought that one out :)

Well yes, this whole discussion was based on the feasibility of libertarian socialism, whether or not it is possible, not whether or not libertarian socialists would force others to become libertarian socialists. I made an argument that it is possible, and you still haven't addressed it. Should I take it that you are conceding that my argument beats your assumptions and assertions, or are you going to actually address it? So far you seem to be avoiding it like the plauge, because you don't want to think about it. I'll be waiting. 



Final-Fan said:
sc94597 said:
One can argue that large vertical firms only remain healthily profitable because the workers and lower management often ignore central management, because they have more information on the status of the market.

I looked at your link but didn't see that directly discussed in the article.  Can you provide me the evidence for this claim? 

sc94597 said:
I'll be waiting.

Speaking of people waiting, did you ever locate the evidence for this claim? 



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Final-Fan said:
Final-Fan said:

I looked at your link but didn't see that directly discussed in the article.  Can you provide me the evidence for this claim? 

sc94597 said:
I'll be waiting.

Speaking of people waiting, did you ever locate the evidence for this claim? 

Sorry, I didn't see your quote. He only outlines his argument in that article, but goes into more detail in the full book version. I never declared the claim as an empirical one, but rather a derived corollary of economic principles. I doubt there has been any proper empirical investigation, because there is no way to control for so many lurking variables. 

Here is a more explicit argument made by the libertarian Roderick Long 

https://www.cato-unbound.org/2008/11/25/roderick-t-long/free-market-firms-smaller-flatter-more-crowded

"

Peter Klein, in “Long on the Corporation,” is skeptical of my argument that in a freed market “firms would be smaller and less hierarchical, more local and more numerous (and many would probably be employee-owned).” Klein agrees with me that large corporations benefit in many ways from governmental favoritism, but insists that small firms may benefit just as much:

 Klein might well respond that in a freed market, large firms would be forced to become more efficient too. Doubtless they would. But for familiar Misesian-Hayekian-Rothbardian reasons, there are limits to how large such firms can get before the diseconomies of scale overtake the economies and calculational chaos ensues; and absent the ability to socialize the diseconomies (as corporatist policies enable them to do), such firms must then fail. Assuming that such problems could be overcome by sufficiently clever entrepreneurship is comparable to assuming that state-socialist central planning can be made to work by sufficiently wise bureaucrats and sufficiently patriotic citizens.


Incidentally, I offered the comic strip
 Dilbert not as evidence of the irrationality of corporate hierarchies but as a reminder of it. Those who have worked in such environments know from their own experience how completely clueless the highly paid upper managers tend to be about what is actually happening, and how much of the firm’s success depends on workers simply ignoring the insane directives from above and doing what needs to be done. When those with such experience hear free-market advocates assuring them that their daily experience is just how things would continue to be in a free market, they are likely to conclude “so much the worse for free markets.” But in fact they should conclude that something artificial is propping up these hierarchies; and their own experience with the firm’s actual dependence on workers bypassing such hierarchies should make them skeptical of the conventional wisdom as to the inefficacy of workers’ self-management.

 

As in the structure of a national economy, so in the structure of the firm, the way an organization really operates is not always reflected in the paper flow charts of the official models. Just as supposed command economies like the Soviet Union have been kept economically afloat mainly by the unacknowledged persistence of black markets, so the success of hierarchical firms is due in large part to the unacknowledged reality, albeit hampered and stunted, of worker’ self-management. And just as the remarkable success of even hampered markets gives us reason to be optimistic about what unhampered markets would achieve, so the ability of workers’ self-management to bring about positive results even when hampered by hierarchy—a reality familiar to millions of people as part of their daily lives, even if it is largely invisible to official “theories of management”—gives us reason to expect still greater successes from workers’ self-management not so hampered."       



sc94597 said:

Stuff

So would it be fair to say your statement was more about very large firms generally instead of vertical firms specifically?  If that is the case, though we may disagree about the extent to which what you said is true and/or the size at which companies are genuinely diseconomized by their nature instead of by creeping mismanagement (avoidable ossification, politics, etc.), I don't think there is a fundamental issue between us regarding that statement. 



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Final-Fan said:
sc94597 said:

Stuff

So would it be fair to say your statement was more about very large firms generally instead of vertical firms specifically?  If that is the case, though we may disagree about the extent to which what you said is true and/or the size at which companies are genuinely diseconomized by their nature instead of by creeping mismanagement (avoidable ossification, politics, etc.), I don't think there is a fundamental issue between us regarding that statement. 

I suppose if we considered a wage relationship between a small-business owner and their employees, there is no knowledge problem because the small business owner is actively involved in the business and has constant direct input from their employees, the customers, and knowledge of prices. Sure, this can be considered to be a vertical institution because the business owner is in a position of (what I'd consider justified) authority over the use of their property, but I'd argue it is much less vertical than we experience with large-scale organizations that require a system of hierarchy in order to function cohesively (just as a command economy requires a bureau to centrally manage resources, a corporation has a board of directors.) In the small-business wage relationship you can directly speak with the person who calls the shots, and decisions can be made without limitations from other departments and/or higher levels of management. The worker has influence on the management decisions, even if they don't make the final decisions. This is not the case for a large institution and it is the case that the larger the institution is the more its hierarchies become counterproductive, as there are not only knowledge problems, but coordination problems secondarily caused by the knowledge problems.  

I can't think of a large firm that is not structured according to some hierarchial relationship. Can you?

In an anarchic society, large scale coordination would likely take a sort of federalist form, where organization is from the bottom-up (individual -> institutions -> cooperating institutions -> societies) via market mechanisms rather than top-down via commands. This allows for large-scale coordination, because each individual makes decisions according to market mechanisms (prices) rather than according to the design of somebody above them. So the criticism is not that large-scale coordination is inherently impossible, but rather that the structure of the organization in combination with its large size creates costs, which become larger with scale. Eventually these costs make profitability impossible, unless the institution devolves power (flattens.) A vertical institution can work okay on a small scale, but once you get to the scope of -- say Walmart -- the effects of the knowledge problem compound because there is no internal market mechanisms. These organizations get around it by a combination of defacto devolution and state subsidies/privileges. 

So yes, it is the size that is the problem, but the size is only a problem because of the way the institution is designed. By devolving power to the individual parts of the company, efficiency can improve, and this is by definition flattening the organization. The same concept can be applied to politics. It is very much impossible for the president of the United States to micromanage the entire lives of everyone in the United States. So instead power is separated and retained by the governments closer to the people. An anarchist would argue that self-ownership > community-level government > state-government > central government. This is because the likelihood that your consent has been given, and your values are accurately represented decrease the further away the instituitions/persons are from you. 

Anyway, 

Tl:DR Version

Yes, it is the size that is the problem, but only because of the way the organizations are structured. Large-scale cooperation can be successful if a bottom-up approach were taken rather than a top-down one. 

It seems as if companies are catching on to this as well. 

http://www.tuw.edu/business/top-down-vs-bottom-up-management/



The ideals of Libertarianism and Socialism are not mutally exclusive. You could be libertarian in certain aspects but Socialist in others. You might, for instance, be opposed to Authoritarian governments when it comes to policy but feel they have an obligation to grant/enable everyone equal rights. You may beleive in the importance of the free market and self ownership, as many Libertarians do, but still feel capitalism needs to be regulated so as not to allow monopolies, etc.. I consider myself very Libertarian but was also a supporter of Bernie Sanders (social democrat). 

What these ideals primarily share in common is an anti-authoritarianism, a skeptisism towards crony capitalism, neoliberalism, and the striving towards equal opportunity and liberty for all.

To look for a key example of both - Noam Chomsky is a good example of a Libertarian Socialist/social democrat. Dennis Kuscinich also somewhat embodies both these ideals as a politician. 



 

"We hold these truths to be self-evident - all men and women created by the, go-you know.. you know the thing!" - Joe Biden

DarthMetalliCube said:

The ideals of Libertarianism and Socialism are not mutally exclusive. You could be libertarian in certain aspects but Socialist in others. You might, for instance, be opposed to Authoritarian governments when it comes to policy but feel they have an obligation to grant/enable everyone equal rights. You may beleive in the importance of the free market and self ownership, as many Libertarians do, but still feel capitalism needs to be regulated so as not to allow monopolies, etc.. I consider myself very Libertarian but was also a supporter of Bernie Sanders (social democrat). 

What these ideals primarily share in common is an anti-authoritarianism, a skeptisism towards crony capitalism, neoliberalism, and the striving towards equal opportunity and liberty for all.

To look for a key example of both - Noam Chomsky is a good example of a Libertarian Socialist/social democrat. Dennis Kuscinich also somewhat embodies both these ideals as a politician. 

While there are similarities between social democracy and pretty much all other mainstream ideologies, libertarian socialism is not the same thing as social democracy. Libertarian socialists believe that a true socialist society can be achieved organically by the elimination or decentralization of government. They don't think welfare capitalism is the utopia its proponents make it out to be. Social democrats believe in capitalism tempered by the welfare state. They believe that welfare capitalism is successful, and push for state action to achieve these ends. 

Noam Chomsky is peculiar in that he thinks the state has a role in changing society before a libertarian one can be achieved. This is similar to Marx's premise, but the means by which society should be changed are different between the two. Most libertarian-socialists criticize Chomsky for not wanting to outright abolish or decentralize the state. 

The only similarities are that they contest mainstream liberalism, but that is like saying liberalism and state-communism are similar because they contest fascism. Social democrats are quite authoritarian when it comes to certain economic issues, and a lot of crony capitalism can be traced to social democratic policies (for example, farm subsidies for big agriculture were meant to decrease food prices for the poor.) 



sc94597 said:
DarthMetalliCube said:

The ideals of Libertarianism and Socialism are not mutally exclusive. You could be libertarian in certain aspects but Socialist in others. You might, for instance, be opposed to Authoritarian governments when it comes to policy but feel they have an obligation to grant/enable everyone equal rights. You may beleive in the importance of the free market and self ownership, as many Libertarians do, but still feel capitalism needs to be regulated so as not to allow monopolies, etc.. I consider myself very Libertarian but was also a supporter of Bernie Sanders (social democrat). 

What these ideals primarily share in common is an anti-authoritarianism, a skeptisism towards crony capitalism, neoliberalism, and the striving towards equal opportunity and liberty for all.

To look for a key example of both - Noam Chomsky is a good example of a Libertarian Socialist/social democrat. Dennis Kuscinich also somewhat embodies both these ideals as a politician. 

While there are similarities between social democracy and pretty much all other mainstream ideologies, libertarian socialism is not the same thing as social democracy. Libertarian socialists believe that a true socialist society can be achieved organically by the elimination or decentralization of government. They don't think welfare capitalism is the utopia its proponents make it out to be. Social democrats believe in capitalism tempered by the welfare state. They believe that welfare capitalism is successful, and push for state action to achieve these ends. 

Noam Chomsky is peculiar in that he thinks the state has a role in changing society before a libertarian one can be achieved. This is similar to Marx's premise, but the means by which society should be changed are different between the two. Most libertarian-socialists criticize Chomsky for not wanting to outright abolish or decentralize the state. 

The only similarities are that they contest mainstream liberalism, but that is like saying liberalism and state-communism are similar because they contest fascism. Social democrats are quite authoritarian when it comes to certain economic issues, and a lot of crony capitalism can be traced to social democratic policies (for example, farm subsidies for big agriculture were meant to decrease food prices for the poor.) 

 

" Libertarian socialists believe that a true socialist society can be achieved organically by the elimination or decentralization of government."

 

but that doesn't make sense... maybe if humans were like ants or bees or locusts

 

what stops the individual in such a situation from pursusing their own interests at the expense of the group?



o_O.Q said:
sc94597 said:

 

" Libertarian socialists believe that a true socialist society can be achieved organically by the elimination or decentralization of government."

 

but that doesn't make sense... maybe if humans were like ants or bees or locusts

 

what stops the individual in such a situation from pursusing their own interests at the expense of the group?

Socialism is defined as "workers or social ownership of the means of production." If individual workers own the means of production then a firm is socialist. If workers collectively own the means of production then it is also socialist. If a combination of the two occur it is also socialist. All socialism is -- is the elimination of wage-labor as the predominate contractual relationship in the workplace. 

If an individual is fine with being an employee working for wages then it is their right to pursue that, and libertarian socialists would not interfere. Libertarian socialists argue that without the state supporting them, these institutions would not be as successful as socialist ones, and people would much rather work in a socialist firm where they can get the full fruits of their labor AND have access to a means of production, than work in a capitalist insitution. Capitalism would not be abolished, but rather outcompeted to where it becomes a very small part of the entire economy. 

I personally am not a socialist. I think that the wage-relationship provides certain benefits to the workers that many socialist ones cannot, and there would be a sizable portion of the population which chooses wage-contracts over socialism, but I do think socialist and capitalist firms would temper eachother in a free-market without the state, and even the capitalist firms would be less hierarchical/authoritarian in their organization structure. 

It seems to me as if the modern state-corporate economy looks more like bees, ants, etc with its hierarchical structure.