> I don't think this is necessarily about socialism. It may just be about capitalism, with rules.
Socialism is when the state controls production and _capital_. Setting rules on labor is, in effect, a control on human capital.
I hate the way socialism and capitalism are pitted as a binary choice. That binary choice is a false dichotomy. In reality, they are only binary if every single action of every single person in an entire economy follows the rules (and assuming those rules are perfectly designed to support the official system).
China's foray into capitalism was a group of farmers who quietly made a contract to distribute earnings from their harvest proportionally by yield (which was illegal at the time) -- this was covered by Planet Money, an NPR show. Even deep in the midst of the most socialist time in China's history, they had a streak of capitalism which was later encouraged by the local government.
Socialism is when the state controls production and _capital_. Setting rules on labor is, in effect, a control on human capital.
I hate the way socialism and capitalism are pitted as a binary choice. That binary choice is a false dichotomy. In reality, they are only binary if every single action of every single person in an entire economy follows the rules (and assuming those rules are perfectly designed to support the official system).
China's foray into capitalism was a group of farmers who quietly made a contract to distribute earnings from their harvest proportionally by yield (which was illegal at the time) -- this was covered by Planet Money, an NPR show. Even deep in the midst of the most socialist time in China's history, they had a streak of capitalism which was later encouraged by the local government.