cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/22826213

One of (if not the best) documentary I’ve ever watched. If I could make everyone watch something - it would be this.

The modern day Four Horsemen continue to ride roughshod over the people who can least afford it. Crises are converging when governments, religion and mainstream economists have stalled. 23 international thinkers come together and break their silence about how the world really works and why there is still hope in re-establishing a moral and just society. Four Horsemen is free from mainstream media propaganda, doesn’t bash bankers, criticize politicians or get involved in conspiracy theories. The film ignites the debate about how we usher a new economic paradigm into the world which, globally, would dramatically improve the quality of life for billions. - Anonymous

  • TypicalHog@lemm.eeOPEnglish
    1·
    9 months ago

    Huh? Wait… what do you think will replace FIAT when it dies? I’m like almost certain it will be crypto + CDBCs.

    Like, I’m curious as to how you think this will play out and why you think we will completely get rid of capitalism and how?

    • Imnecomrade@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
      1·
      9 months ago

      I apologize for not responding sooner. I needed time to think on a response, and I was sick this past week.

      I still have to read theory, but from what I learned so far, this is what I can say:

      The fiat issue is more of a far future problem. Let’s say today we have a socialist revolution and the working class can finally make changes to policies to benefit humanity. Some issues can be resolved overnight, while others would take more time.

      A few pages are devoted to a broad sketch of socialism and communism in The Grundrisse, Critique of the Gotha Program, and in Engels’s The Housing Question. His most important work, Capital, says very little about these matters. Even The Communist Manifesto limits its forward-looking program to a general picture of the rise and ultimate fall of capitalism, forecasting that the working class would overthrow the rule of private property. It includes a series of immediate changes for the first stage of socialism in advanced capitalist countries: the abolition of private land ownership and inheritances, state control of banking and industry, the shared responsibility of all to labor, free education for all, a gradual abolition of the distinction between town and country, and so on. The Manifesto provides no further details on what all this looks like and even these measures “. . . will, of course, be different in different countries.”

      —Socialist Reconstruction: A Better Future for the United States

      I recommend reading Socialist Reconstruction as it details the likely and potential steps in the reconstruction of US society after a socialist revolution. You can read a larger excerpt that I copied from the book here. Keep in mind that one of the principles of Marxist-Leninists is that no one can sketch out a blueprint for what a socialist society or government will look like. Any ideas we develop today for a better future may or may not be relevant when it comes time to implement them, which is not a problem. However, we know upon a socialist revolution we will still be working under the previous capitalist framework. This is why post-scarcity and complete communism has not been achieved yet and why a socialist state is necessary to tackle any counter-revolution from the bourgeoisie. Such a state would involve a democracy of workers, essentially committees, unions, organizations, and other groups which would collaborate with the government and workplaces in a decentralized yet centralized manner. The country would be divided proportionally (in terms of population) between megalopolises and large rural areas to give equal representation to different areas of society with different needs based on their current geography instead the current arbitrary state borders. There will be no Senate, either. It will take a lot of time and cooperation with everyone on this planet to reverse the damage capitalism has done. We can see from other actually existing and previously existing socialist nations that after their socialist revolutions, they have managed to accelerate the development of their societies much more quickly than capitalist nations.

      I recommend watching the following videos from Hakim:

      I also recommend these videos from Second Thought:

      I know I provided a lot of videos. You don’t have to watch them all now. You can pick the ones you want to watch on your own time, but I would suggest the first two from Hakim and first one from Second Thought to start.

      I was interested in cryptocurrency before I became a socialist, and after its major bust and seeing its flaws, I really doubt that it will be the solution to fiat. But maybe it would have an application in a socialist society. Maybe the blockchain could serve as a voucher/credit system for workers. Maybe another solution will be better and more relevant. Maybe the blockchain would be more beneficial when applied for other sectors beyond finance. I really can’t answer this, at least from my currently gathered knowledge. Personally, I would like to see the economy convert to a resource based economy where resources are allocated according to need, efficiency, and sustainability using computers and cut the money middleman out, but I would be open to other ideas when it comes to the time when the workers improve the economic/financial system without the limitations of capitalism. China’s food prices are declining at this time, so we can see that inflation can be resolved under a fiat system when a country adopts a planned economy (with Chinese characteristics). The actual issue is that we live in a system that seeks profit instead of improving the lives of humans. Take the profit motive out of the equation, and the limitations of fiat currency is not as important of a priority to resolve and can be managed for a long while.

      I recommend looking at Paul Cockshott’s lectures on cryptocurrency:

      For additional materials that describe which issues of capitalism can be solved by socialism immediately or later, I suggest reading these:

      I know my “thought process flow” is a bit choppier than I was hoping to present, but I hope the explanation and resources I provided help.

      BTW, a new First Thought video about homelessness released today and does a great job demonstrating the absurdity of the ease in which we could house the homeless 24 times over and yet capitalism refuses to do so in any way that would show an ounce of humanity:

      Ben Norton released a video today (2024-02-14) regarding how digital currencies and CBDCs are helping countries drop the US dollar, and I thought you may be interested: