• sugar_in_your_tea
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    3 hours ago

    He really isn’t anti-capitalist, he’s against concentrations of wealth generally, but he’s absolutely in favor of our capitalist system, he just thinks there should be more rules so workers fare better. He’s not a socialist, much as the right wants to think, he’s just in favor of a large welfare system and high taxes on the wealthy. He doesn’t want to fundamentally change our economic system, he just wants to make it more fair for his definition of “fair.”

    • J Lou@mastodon.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      2 hours ago

      I agree he is not a socialist in the 20th century sense, but he clearly says that workers should have ownership stake in companies, which is not a capitalist sentiment. He advocates for employee ownership of companies. I also am aware of who his economic advisors on these issues are and they are very much anti-capitalist

      @noncredibledefense

      • sugar_in_your_tea
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        1 hour ago

        he clearly says that workers should have ownership stake in companies, which is not a capitalist sentiment

        It absolutely is though. Partnerships have been a thing since pretty much forever, and a lot of publicly traded companies and some private companies hand out company stock as part of compensation. Employees owning stock isn’t socialism, it’s capitalism, and the goal is for employees’ interests to be more aligned with the company’s so overall profitability is higher.

        Sanders is approaching it from an employee outcomes perspective, but it’s still very much from a capitalist mindset.

        He’s not advocating for companies to be run democratically like they would under socialism, he’s advocating for more profit sharing without meaningfully changing ownership.

        • J Lou@mastodon.social
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          56 minutes ago

          I agree that giving alienable voting shares to workers isn’t anti-capitalist. It becomes anti-capitalist when the voting rights over management and corporate governance are inalienable meaning they are legally recognized as non-transferable even with consent.

          Here is a talk by people involved with Bernie Sanders politically about how all companies should be democratically controlled by the workers: https://youtu.be/E8mq9va5_ZE

          Sanders supports worker co-op conversions

          @noncredibledefense