“The fact that the state regulates private capitalist enterprises and operates state capitalist enterprises does not reduce the capitalist structure of an economy. So long as employers, private or state, hire laborers to produce commodities and generate profits that the employers “exclusively” receive, the economy has a capitalist structure. So long as it is exclusively the employers (whether private, state or hybrid; whether more or less regulated) who decide how to use those profits, it is a capitalist structure.

An enterprise only qualifies as “socialist” once the distinction between employers and employees within it has been abolished. When workers collectively and democratically produce, receive and distribute the profits their labor generates, the enterprise becomes socialist. Such enterprises can then become the base of a socialist economy – its micro-level foundation – supporting whatever ownership system (public and/or private) and distribution system (planning and/or market) constitute that economy’s macro level.”

Since “socialism” was the most-searched word of 2015 (I’m sure Bernie Sanders had something to do with it, and no, he’s not a true socialist ((and doesn’t claim to be, to my knowledge))), I thought I would point to this helpful essay by Richard Wolff where he lucidly explains the differences between things like private capitalism, state capitalism, and socialism.

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Painting above: Ruby Loftus screwing a Breech-ring by Laura Knight.

Tags:Bernie SanderscapitalismeconomicsRichard Wolffsocialismstate capitalism