How Slovenia Got Rich Without Capitalism 🇸🇮

[Husseinisdoingfine]

What Slovenia essentially did was decentralize the economy. Instead of businesses being run by the government, those who worked in the enterprises managed and owned them. To achieve this, they created workers' councils, consisting of 75% workers, to make administrative decisions for the businesses. Businesses competed with each other, preserving the market system, and were allowed to set their own prices. In contrast, in other socialist societies, businesses were not allowed to set their own prices at all. This was a form of socialism that integrated a market system of free trade, as enterprises competed against each other and with other countries in an open and free market.

[Referring to the 10:55 minute mark] It's interesting to note that this form of "reformed" socialism (workers managing their own production in their own factories) is actually much closer in spirit to original Marxism and other early Communist/Anarchist ideologies than the centrally planned state economies of the Soviet bloc. The centrally planned economies ultimately disempowered workers and empowered a new bureaucratic/technocratic class, which is the opposite of the proletarian revolution that Marx and Engels envisioned.

Bonus video:

 

 

Edited Friday at 05:22 PM by Husseinisdoingfine

[aurum]

Interesting, I did not know about this.

Seems similar to Richard Wolff's ideas about worker self-directed enterprises. I do imagine these kind of business models could become more popular as we move collectively more into SD Green.

[Husseinisdoingfine]

17 hours ago, aurum said:

I do imagine these kind of business models could become more popular as we move collectively more into SD Green.

"Those who have tried socialism as their version of GREEN find it is not the answer either (usually GREEN implemented by BLUE and subsidized by ORANGE)". (Beck and Cowan, page. 272)

Beck, Don E., and Christopher Cowan. Spiral Dynamics: Master Values, Leadership, and Change. Blackwell Publishing, 1996.

 

I do absolutely agree that massive collectivization and socialization of industry and business is absolutely crucial to leading society to the next stage of development, but it is not the final answer to all of out problems. There, most importantly, has to be a massive evolution of our culture and values to accommodate this new collective economy. 

Edited Friday at 10:39 PM by Husseinisdoingfine

[RareGodzilla]

This reminds me—there was a political debate on our Slovene national TV, and the super pro-capitalist stage orange guy complained that the state has grown so big that it's way bigger than it was douring socialism. Of course that's a nice perk of letting people manage themselves. Hell, we might be able to get Elon Musk to like the idea if we package it the right way.  

Edited Sunday at 02:46 PM by RareGodzilla