Ask Lemmy

I’m down with democratic capitalism as long as there are strong regulations and socialized services like medicine, fire, police, utilities, and roads. Does that make me a democratic socialist?

The USA has been on a downward slide after Reagan deregulated everything. There were a couple of tries at course correction afterward, but the current regime is going to dismantle everything as fast as they can.

I wake up at the start of the month and receive a list of work that needs to be done in my community from the AI that organizes human labor to most efficiently give us the max amount of time off possible.

I spend the morning relaxing at home and listening to music, planning out the upcoming month with my community team, it will take probably less than a week of work per person for the whole month and all real work that needs to be done. If I'm stressed or mentally ill i can reschedule any work day at any time and the AI will plan accordingly.

I can work with my community to improve the lives of the people in the general vicinity of my home on my work days, and enjoy my off days knowing I will never be manipulated by the system I depend on for survival.

On my days off I make use of my local services which allow for communities to setup their own workshops and lessons. I am allowed the time and materials within reason to pursue hobbies, crafts, and the arts.

I think most important of all is I would get to have agency in my life and the world around me, i would get to be more than a slave who worries about survival constantly. If I was actually allowed to use my free will I would feel free.

Socialism with a resource based economy

Fully automated luxury gay space communism, with a healthy dose of anarchism.

Right now, in this particular moment?

Every republican (and those who would vote republican if they were in the US) is round up and shot dead.

Pretty much any system the survivors come up with will be better.

Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords.

Anything else than whatever the fuck saudi is doing.

Republic or constitutional monarchy? Literally anything else is better at this point.

Representative democracy with all corporations above a certain size or value to be worker-owned and run.

Some post-scarcity, resource-based system with hints of communism and socialism. No classes, no currency, shared ownership of resources, full automation of labor through robotics. Life is no longer based on the pursuit of a better life through getting money, life would just be whatever you want it to be.

I think Eleanor Shellstrop captured it best:

Yeah, in America everyone DOES whatever they want, society DID break down, it's terrible, and it's great! You only look out for number one, scream at whoever disagrees with you, there are no bees because they all died, and if you need surgery you just beg for money on the Internet! It's the perfect system!"

Anarcho-syndicalist commune. Take it in turns to act as sort-of executive officer for the week, but all the decisions of that officer have to be ratified at a special biweekly meeting by a simple majority, in the case of purely internal affairs, but by a two thirds majority, in the case of a major foreign policy decision.

Well, first we blast everyone in charge into the sun.

Then we find out who wants to be in charge in their place.

Then we round them up and blast them into the sun.

Then we find out who's willing to volunteer to be in charge in their place.

Then we abduct them and blast them into the sun.

Then we assign the people in charge by lottery on 11-person committees on 6 month terms. At 1 month and 3 months we do a compulsory referendum on how they're doing. If they fail, we blast them into the sun.

At the end of a 6 month term, a serving committee member can petition for one extra term. That is then voted on in a compulsory referendum. If they win, they get another term. Then we blast them into the sun.

Voting is always compulsory for all issues and all elections except in case of medical emergency. Failure to vote means we blast them into the sun.

A political career should not be desirable.

I live alone in the woods.

Constitutional Monarchy with me as the monarch.

I'll just create a proportional representation system for a unicameral parliament, open party lists (you vote for a party, then rank the party list). I'll just sit back and watch. If someone does something stupid, I'll use my monarch powers to veto that shit. I'll ban all the nazi parties.

For succession, I'll hand-pick a small council thay will collectively excerise the crown's powers on my behalf after I die, they will have to be 2/3 in agreement to excersise the (limited) veto powers. Each council member picks a list of people who will succeed them, each member has a separate list of successors. When someone suceeds them, the successor can change the list.

I will be the permanent monarch in spirit, my ghost will forever be in the city, watching everyones every little move. They will merely excercise my powers on my behalf.

But yea, I'll just chill and relax, I claim all the credit, the politicians take all the blame. A totally fair and balanced system 😉

~/jk~

Speaking as a US citizen, I would like to move closer to the corporatist (not corporatocratic) models of countries like Sweden, Norway, and Germany. Capitalism and the economic strength that investment can bring tempered by strong unions at the national level to ensure that workers get good working and living conditions, with the government serving as a meeting grounds to hash out details. From my understanding Swedish law even mandates that worker unions have a place in government.

To me it seems ideal because it’s feasible. Corporations are already entrenched in the US government, the only missing pieces are unions large enough to be involved at the same level. I think we were on track to have that 50-60 years ago when unions like the UMWA represented over 400,000 workers by themselves, but unions have slowly been eroded over the decades. I think it would be easier to rebuild American unions and demand that corporations be kept in check than it would be to overhaul the current economic/political system into something entirely new.