The main differences are that the right accepts social, class differences while the left wants socialized support and unity. On the other hand the left wants individual personal differences while the right wants uniform values.
Uh no, one wants private ownership of the means of production, the other collective ownership of the means of production. You cant have any analysis of right vs. left without looking at that since that is core to each ideology and everything else revolves around that.
Well ownership over some means of production entitles one to the products produced with them.
So someone who owns a factory will employ the laborers, pay their salary and be entitled to all that the laborers produced using that factory and will then sell them for profit or loss independent of what the laborers were paid. The laborers get no say in how their products are used or sold and if they get sold at loss to often they will simply all be let go. If they get sold at huge profits then they will not benefit from that either. The owner has to eat all the loss or enriches themselves from the products independent of how much or if they put labor into it themselves.
If the laborers own the factory they work in however they own the products they produce and can decide how to divvy up what these products sold for. If they sell at a loss they can still look to mitigate the fallout to the more vulnerable and can decide themselves whether to close up shop and look for work elsewhere. If they sell them for much higher than the input cost than they get to divide it all for themselves. All those and only those that worked for them get to directly benefit from the sale.
So ownership of the means of production gives you the power to distribute the wealth that gets produced. This is something people generally like/want since its directly tied to a more comfortable life for them
I would argue that setting up cooperatives under capitalism is extremely difficult since it requires a huge amount of capital to be invested up front. People that can put this investment forth then become the owners of the venture and not the laborers themselves. Again you have private ownership of the means of production.
But even if the laborers come up with the investment themselves, then usually each laborer individually owns a portion of the venture and gets the value created paid out according to that. However truly collective ownership over the means of production means that no one individually owns any part of the venture but everyone collectively owns the whole thing. Such a construct is not really possible or very very very difficult to set up within a capitalist legal framework.
The fact that people do want ownership however can be seen by the lengths they will go to if able. Every communist revolution had at its core a demand for collective ownership over arable land, factories etc. And they fought bloody battles against the private owning class thats how much they wanted it. At the moment however this cost is too high compared to our current lifestyle which is why people dont organize a war against the owning class.
But often I go into a supermarket and wonder what it would look like if the cashiers, the people stocking the shelves, cleaning the floors, transporting the goods, owned it. A lot less white fluorescent lighting I’d imagine. Or what if the tenants of a huge building owned the entire thing themselves and any rent they paid got put to use for the building they occupy. And I think if people actually thought about what it would mean for them to own the workplaces they work at or the buildings they live in, then I think most would agree that they would much rather have that, than have some other people owning it all who arent affected in how it is run in their day to day lives, but only skim the profit.
The Russian civil war was fought with 1% or 2% of the population. It’s not the majority that fights to own things.
Owning means to constantly think for the company and constantly try to optimize it. There is no time off. It’s a job on its own that is more than just skimming the profits.
Uh no, one wants private ownership of the means of production, the other collective ownership of the means of production. You cant have any analysis of right vs. left without looking at that since that is core to each ideology and everything else revolves around that.
Ok, that’s clearer and more to the functional point than unity.
My perspective is that people are driven by emotions. Is ownership something in itself that people want? I would say that it is just a tool.
Well ownership over some means of production entitles one to the products produced with them.
So someone who owns a factory will employ the laborers, pay their salary and be entitled to all that the laborers produced using that factory and will then sell them for profit or loss independent of what the laborers were paid. The laborers get no say in how their products are used or sold and if they get sold at loss to often they will simply all be let go. If they get sold at huge profits then they will not benefit from that either. The owner has to eat all the loss or enriches themselves from the products independent of how much or if they put labor into it themselves.
If the laborers own the factory they work in however they own the products they produce and can decide how to divvy up what these products sold for. If they sell at a loss they can still look to mitigate the fallout to the more vulnerable and can decide themselves whether to close up shop and look for work elsewhere. If they sell them for much higher than the input cost than they get to divide it all for themselves. All those and only those that worked for them get to directly benefit from the sale.
So ownership of the means of production gives you the power to distribute the wealth that gets produced. This is something people generally like/want since its directly tied to a more comfortable life for them
I would argue that people in general don’t want ownership or we would have many more cooperatives.
I would argue that setting up cooperatives under capitalism is extremely difficult since it requires a huge amount of capital to be invested up front. People that can put this investment forth then become the owners of the venture and not the laborers themselves. Again you have private ownership of the means of production.
But even if the laborers come up with the investment themselves, then usually each laborer individually owns a portion of the venture and gets the value created paid out according to that. However truly collective ownership over the means of production means that no one individually owns any part of the venture but everyone collectively owns the whole thing. Such a construct is not really possible or very very very difficult to set up within a capitalist legal framework.
The fact that people do want ownership however can be seen by the lengths they will go to if able. Every communist revolution had at its core a demand for collective ownership over arable land, factories etc. And they fought bloody battles against the private owning class thats how much they wanted it. At the moment however this cost is too high compared to our current lifestyle which is why people dont organize a war against the owning class.
But often I go into a supermarket and wonder what it would look like if the cashiers, the people stocking the shelves, cleaning the floors, transporting the goods, owned it. A lot less white fluorescent lighting I’d imagine. Or what if the tenants of a huge building owned the entire thing themselves and any rent they paid got put to use for the building they occupy. And I think if people actually thought about what it would mean for them to own the workplaces they work at or the buildings they live in, then I think most would agree that they would much rather have that, than have some other people owning it all who arent affected in how it is run in their day to day lives, but only skim the profit.
Overall I agree with two exceptions.
The Russian civil war was fought with 1% or 2% of the population. It’s not the majority that fights to own things.
Owning means to constantly think for the company and constantly try to optimize it. There is no time off. It’s a job on its own that is more than just skimming the profits.