Capitalist socialism
"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.
Manifestations
- Corporate welfare: bailouts (2008), subsidies, monopoly procurement (Pentagon), central-bank backstops — full state support of capital with none of its risks.
- 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
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).