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Mutualism
- Thread starter Kidblop
- Start date
Mathematician
Reason, and reason again
Mutualism is a variant of socialism, yes.
Without the overarching capitalist state and its extension of benefits to capitalists (government subsidies, cheap capital), mutualists believe the market will naturally produce socialism in the form of mutual aid societies, neighborhood assemblies, land trusts, co-ops, tenant's unions, independent labor unions, neighborhood watch and cop-watch, alternative media, community gardens, LETS systems, barter networks, mutual banks, and open-source information. I actually think there's a lot of truth to this. There could also be a communist element thrown in the mix which would allow for firms that operate almost exclusively outside of the price system.
A minarchist alternative to mutualism, in my opinion, seems like the most likely system to survive popular opinion within the United States and West Europe. I could actually see with some nail-biting progression following in the order of capitalism - > quasi-mutualism - > communism.
Without the overarching capitalist state and its extension of benefits to capitalists (government subsidies, cheap capital), mutualists believe the market will naturally produce socialism in the form of mutual aid societies, neighborhood assemblies, land trusts, co-ops, tenant's unions, independent labor unions, neighborhood watch and cop-watch, alternative media, community gardens, LETS systems, barter networks, mutual banks, and open-source information. I actually think there's a lot of truth to this. There could also be a communist element thrown in the mix which would allow for firms that operate almost exclusively outside of the price system.
A minarchist alternative to mutualism, in my opinion, seems like the most likely system to survive popular opinion within the United States and West Europe. I could actually see with some nail-biting progression following in the order of capitalism - > quasi-mutualism - > communism.
Spillersman
New Member
What I really like about Proudhon is that he is very practical. He supported anarchism in the ideal but was willing to work within the existing system to transform it more into an anarchistic direction. He actually ran for the French Assembly in France. Proudhon supported gradualism over violent revolution. He also tried to balance capitalism and socialism but promoting private property and free markets, yet supporting a labor theory of value and worker cooperatives over capitalistic corporations. Proudhon has alot in common I believe with Thomas Jefferson. I'm wondering if you could have a minarchist mutualism. Say people like Ron Paul were to get elected all over the country dramatically shrinking government and decentralizing power within it. He would also be ending what he calls "cooperativism" or what we call state capitalism, ie the privileges and welfare we give the corporations. Couple that we a vibrant cooperative movement establishing worker coops, housing and rental coops, and educational coops.
Heraclitus' Cure
New Member
Proudhon's mutualist system replaces property by possession. Those who use the means of production, the workers, are the owners. In capitalism, the owners and the workers are two separate classes.
Thus, in mutualism, there isn't an owner class (capitalists) stealing surplus-value. Property is abolished, and so is capitalism.
Mutualism differs from collectivism and communism in that businesses are still independent entities, so there is still a market economy.
Thus, in mutualism, there isn't an owner class (capitalists) stealing surplus-value. Property is abolished, and so is capitalism.
Mutualism differs from collectivism and communism in that businesses are still independent entities, so there is still a market economy.
Sounds like the resource based economy.
To transcend these limitations, The Venus Project proposes we work toward a worldwide, resource-based economy, in which the planetary resources are held as the common heritage of all the earth's inhabitants. The current practice of rationing resources through monetary methods is irrelevant, counter-productive, and falls far short of meeting humanity's needs.
Simply stated, a resource-based economy utilizes existing resources - rather than money - to provide an equitable method of distribution in the most humane and efficient manner. It is a system in which all goods and services are available to everyone without the use of money, credits, barter, or any other form of debt or servitude.
To better understand a resource-based economy, consider this. If all the money in the world disappeared overnight, as long as topsoil, factories, personnel and other resources were left intact, we could build anything we needed to fulfill most human needs. It is not money that people require, but rather free access to most of their needs without worrying about financial security or having to appeal to a government bureaucracy. In a resource-based economy of abundance, money will become irrelevant.
We have arrived at a time when new innovations in science and technology can easily provide abundance to all of the world's people. It is no longer necessary to perpetuate the conscious withdrawal of efficiency by planned obsolescence, perpetuated by our old and outworn profit system. If we are genuinely concerned about the environment and our fellow human beings, if we really want to end territorial disputes, war, crime, poverty and hunger, we must consciously reconsider the social processes that led us to a world where these factors are common. Like it or not, it is our social processes - political practices, belief systems, profit-based economy, our culture-driven behavioral norms - that lead to and support hunger, war, disease and environmental damage.
The aim of this new social design is to encourage an incentive system no longer directed toward the shallow and self-centered goals of wealth, property, and power. These new incentives would encourage people toward self-fulfillment and creativity, both materially and spiritually.
To transcend these limitations, The Venus Project proposes we work toward a worldwide, resource-based economy, in which the planetary resources are held as the common heritage of all the earth's inhabitants. The current practice of rationing resources through monetary methods is irrelevant, counter-productive, and falls far short of meeting humanity's needs.
Simply stated, a resource-based economy utilizes existing resources - rather than money - to provide an equitable method of distribution in the most humane and efficient manner. It is a system in which all goods and services are available to everyone without the use of money, credits, barter, or any other form of debt or servitude.
To better understand a resource-based economy, consider this. If all the money in the world disappeared overnight, as long as topsoil, factories, personnel and other resources were left intact, we could build anything we needed to fulfill most human needs. It is not money that people require, but rather free access to most of their needs without worrying about financial security or having to appeal to a government bureaucracy. In a resource-based economy of abundance, money will become irrelevant.
We have arrived at a time when new innovations in science and technology can easily provide abundance to all of the world's people. It is no longer necessary to perpetuate the conscious withdrawal of efficiency by planned obsolescence, perpetuated by our old and outworn profit system. If we are genuinely concerned about the environment and our fellow human beings, if we really want to end territorial disputes, war, crime, poverty and hunger, we must consciously reconsider the social processes that led us to a world where these factors are common. Like it or not, it is our social processes - political practices, belief systems, profit-based economy, our culture-driven behavioral norms - that lead to and support hunger, war, disease and environmental damage.
The aim of this new social design is to encourage an incentive system no longer directed toward the shallow and self-centered goals of wealth, property, and power. These new incentives would encourage people toward self-fulfillment and creativity, both materially and spiritually.