@stib @SuperMoosie @3goodthings @DigitalCoup @meditation @economics_that_works
Exactly. We’ve somehow been taught that “the market” is freedom and "public planning" is tyranny.
But markets are planned too. Corporations plan obsessively.
The democratic question is simply: who is doing the planning, and who are they accountable to?
#market #Corporations #democratic #public #freedom #tyranny #plan
Aug 16, 2026, 5:52 AM@Robinzz3 @stib @SuperMoosie @3goodthings @DigitalCoup @meditation @economics_that_works the other thing we did collectively in the 'west' was to outsource the capability to build TO China and other countries with cheaper labour, in a largely successful bid to remove worker political power and concentrate wealth.
@Taco_lad @stib @SuperMoosie @3goodthings @DigitalCoup @meditation @economics_that_works
Yes. And that part is rarely said plainly enough.
We didn’t just outsource manufacturing. We outsourced bargaining power.
When production moved, workers lost leverage, communities lost industry, and capital became much harder to challenge.
Cheap goods were the consolation prize.
We lost the ability to make stuff that nobody really wanted.
We lost the ability to make poor quality stuff, that was inefficiently made.
We lost the ability to make stuff, that we took no pride in making, because it was protected and outside competition was blocked.
There’s truth in that. Protection can preserve some spectacularly ordinary industries.
But I don’t think that answers the larger point. We didn’t merely stop making saggy undies. We also surrendered industrial capacity, skills and worker bargaining power.
Surely there was a middle ground between protecting everything forever and shipping almost everything offshore.