For what it’s worth, it seems to me that you’ve used the term “socialism” to refer to two different, conflated, specific policies. In the OP you seem to be talking about direct redistribution of money, which isn’t necessarily equivalent to the notion of worker control of the means of production that you introduce in the parent; and the term “socialism” doesn’t pick out either specific policy in my mind.
Ah, here’s the confusion. No, in the OP I was talking about worker control of the means of production, and criticizing Effective Altruism for attempting to fix poverty and sickness through what I consider an insufficiently effective intervention, that being direct redistribution of money.
How would you respond to (what I claim to be) Krugman’s account, i.e., in current conditions poor households are budget-constrained and would, if free to do so, liquidate their ownership of the means of production for money to buy the things they need immediately? Just how much redistribution of ownership are you imagining here?
Basically, I accept that critique, but only at an engineering level. Ditto on the “how much” issue: it’s engineering. Neither of these issues actually makes me believe that a welfare state strapped awkwardly on top of a fundamentally industrial-capitalist, resource-capitalist, or financial-capitalist system—and constantly under attack by anyone perceiving themselves as a put-upon well-heeled taxpayer to boot—is actually a better solution to poverty and inequality than a more thoroughly socialist system in which such inequalities and such poverty just don’t happen in the first place (because they’re not part of the system’s utility function).
I certainly believe that we have not yet designed or located a perfect socialist system to implement. What I do note, as addendum to that, is that nobody who supports capitalism believes the status quo is a perfect capitalism, and most people who aren’t fanatical ideologues don’t even believe we’ve found a perfect capitalism yet. The lack of a preexisting design X and a proof that X Is Perfect do not preclude the existence of a better system, whether redesigned from scratch or found by hill-climbing on piecemeal reforms.
All that lack means is that we have to actually think and actually try—which we should have been doing anyway, if we wish to act according to our profession to be rational.
Ah, here’s the confusion. No, in the OP I was talking about worker control of the means of production, and criticizing Effective Altruism for attempting to fix poverty and sickness through what I consider an insufficiently effective intervention, that being direct redistribution of money.
Oh, I see. Excellent clarification.
How would you respond to (what I claim to be) Krugman’s account, i.e., in current conditions poor households are budget-constrained and would, if free to do so, liquidate their ownership of the means of production for money to buy the things they need immediately? Just how much redistribution of ownership are you imagining here?
Basically, I accept that critique, but only at an engineering level. Ditto on the “how much” issue: it’s engineering. Neither of these issues actually makes me believe that a welfare state strapped awkwardly on top of a fundamentally industrial-capitalist, resource-capitalist, or financial-capitalist system—and constantly under attack by anyone perceiving themselves as a put-upon well-heeled taxpayer to boot—is actually a better solution to poverty and inequality than a more thoroughly socialist system in which such inequalities and such poverty just don’t happen in the first place (because they’re not part of the system’s utility function).
I certainly believe that we have not yet designed or located a perfect socialist system to implement. What I do note, as addendum to that, is that nobody who supports capitalism believes the status quo is a perfect capitalism, and most people who aren’t fanatical ideologues don’t even believe we’ve found a perfect capitalism yet. The lack of a preexisting design X and a proof that X Is Perfect do not preclude the existence of a better system, whether redesigned from scratch or found by hill-climbing on piecemeal reforms.
All that lack means is that we have to actually think and actually try—which we should have been doing anyway, if we wish to act according to our profession to be rational.
Good answer. (Before this comment thread I was, and I continue to be, fairly sympathetic to these efforts.)
Thanks!