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Capitalist socialism: Difference between revisions

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'''"Capitalist Socialism"''' names the Infrared concept that actually-existing Western capitalism has already absorbed socialism's forms — planning, welfare, corporate bureaucracy — while retaining capitalist command: socialism '''for the rich''', administered capitalism for everyone else.
'''"Capitalist socialism"''' is Haz Al-Din's name for the actually-existing American economy: a planned economy whose planning is captured by financial monopolists.


== Manifestations ==
== The formulation ==
* Corporate welfare: bailouts (2008), subsidies, monopoly procurement (Pentagon), central-bank backstops — full state support of capital with none of its risks.
From [https://infrared-transcripts.pages.dev/en/youtube/infrared-vods/jslqqjasue4/ RESPONDING TO THE COMMUNIST PARTY'S INFRARED BAN] (Nov 2021):
* The managerial corporation: internal planning at Amazon/Walmart scale exceeding many national economies — Engels' trusts realized.
* Public-private "stakeholder" governance: ESG, public-private partnerships — the fusion of state and monopoly presented as post-ideological administration.
* Welfare as control: means-tested provision disciplining the poor rather than empowering them.


== The point ==
> "We have a bloated financial sector, and I want to go farther than even China is right now — I want America's financial sector to be completely eliminated... The financial sector is a form of bourgeois, monopoly '''capitalist socialism'''. The financial sector right now is a form of selling indulgences of the planned economy. We live in a planned economy — but on Wall Street the financial monopolists coordinate with each other to get rich off of this financial planning, and rig the system to their benefit, at the expense of the American people."
Against libertarians who call this "socialism" to discredit it, and liberals who call it "mixed economy," Infrared insists on the distinction of '''telos''': this is capitalism using socialist forms to preserve capitalist rule. Real socialism means those same socialized productive forces commanded by the people. Hence "[[We already live in socialism]]" — the task is not to build planning from scratch but to seize what exists (see [[Corporate Socialism under FDR]], [[New Deal]]).
 
== The argument ==
* The economy '''is''' planned — supply chains, monopolies, state coordination ([[We already live in socialism]]). Finance is the toll-booth erected on top of that planning: "selling indulgences" — payment for permission to participate in what already exists.
* Hence the radical demand: not regulate finance but '''eliminate''' it — going farther than China's mixed model — because finance is not a sector of production but a parasite stratum on the already-socialized economy ([[Tendency of the rate of profit to fall]]).
* The wordplay cuts both ways in debate: when opponents complain socialism is being eroded into meaninglessness ("super capitalist, socialism already won"), Haz agrees the word is eroded — because the reality it names already exists in distorted form. The task is not to invent planning but to '''expropriate the planners'''.


== See also ==
== See also ==
* [[We already live in socialism]]
* [[We already live in socialism]]
* [[Anglo Box]]
* [[Corporate Socialism under FDR]]


== References ==
== References ==
<references/>
<references/>


[[Category:Economics]][[Category:Ideology]][[Category:Infrared]]
[[Category:Economics]][[Category:Infrared]][[Category:Theory]]

Revision as of 10:01, 21 August 2026

"Capitalist socialism" is Haz Al-Din's name for the actually-existing American economy: a planned economy whose planning is captured by financial monopolists.

The formulation

From RESPONDING TO THE COMMUNIST PARTY'S INFRARED BAN (Nov 2021):

> "We have a bloated financial sector, and I want to go farther than even China is right now — I want America's financial sector to be completely eliminated... The financial sector is a form of bourgeois, monopoly capitalist socialism. The financial sector right now is a form of selling indulgences of the planned economy. We live in a planned economy — but on Wall Street the financial monopolists coordinate with each other to get rich off of this financial planning, and rig the system to their benefit, at the expense of the American people."

The argument

  • The economy is planned — supply chains, monopolies, state coordination (We already live in socialism). Finance is the toll-booth erected on top of that planning: "selling indulgences" — payment for permission to participate in what already exists.
  • Hence the radical demand: not regulate finance but eliminate it — going farther than China's mixed model — because finance is not a sector of production but a parasite stratum on the already-socialized economy (Tendency of the rate of profit to fall).
  • The wordplay cuts both ways in debate: when opponents complain socialism is being eroded into meaninglessness ("super capitalist, socialism already won"), Haz agrees the word is eroded — because the reality it names already exists in distorted form. The task is not to invent planning but to expropriate the planners.

See also

References