How #Socialism in the 21st Century Could Work
via @wallabag
https://jacobin.com/2026/05/market-socialism-capitalism-ownership-exploitation
for many people, capitalism just means we get to choose among a few slave masters. we can't get ahead and then something expensive like a natural disaster or health care emergency shows up. we can't afford to buy a house and landlords can be shitty. education is expensive. inflation.
I'm not for communism but I am for a lot more socialism mixed in with my capitalism.
@wjmaggos
Me too! I would love to live in a socialist country were I can have a few slaves.
I would have a bodyguard driver that has good build and a state-issued car, a cook who has good teeth and hygiene, plus at least 3 different sex slave concubines, that I would keep separate so they don't get their periods at the same time of the month.
What's the state policy on flogging your slaves? I would like to punish them when I'm in a bad mood. Man...slavery is awesome.
do you consider having any government to be a form a slavery?
@wjmaggos
No. Just a socialist/communist government, which requires slavery to function.
I don't understand where you're drawing the line then. what makes it slavery? Is an ambulance ok but not universal health care? Roads but not subsidized public transportation? Public schools for lower grades but not college? Housing assistance for veterans but not cops and firefighters?
@wjmaggos
It's not about the services. It's about who does them.
You can have ambulances and universal health cares and all that. The question is always: who will do them? Supply X demand.
Universal heath care you need to force people to become doctors (since they are paid the same as a barista) and enslave them later so they don't escape - like Cuba does.
Why would anyone build roads or drive the entire day instead of streaming games?
Who would build the houses for house assistance?
> It's not about the services. It's about who does them.
> You can have ambulances and universal health cares and all that. The question is always: who will do them? Supply X demand.
why have we had a nursing shortage for so long if our glorious free market should be activating and paying them so much money that we have a massive influx of new nurses?
There's clearly a high demand. But nothing is being done. Patients are just getting worse care. People don't want to become a nurse for shit pay, but something in our free market is broken that is holding down their wages.
What do we have to do to fix this?
The nursing shortage was mostly due to DEI excluding men, lack of nursing schools and a surprisingly complicated process to bring and onboard foreign nurses. It's also VERY heavily regulated by the government, there's zero free market about it.
If companies could hire freelancer Nurses without registering as Registered Nurse (RN), pass the NCLEX-RN licensure exam and obtain a state license (which are capped), THEN the situation would improve.
Fix this? Reduce government.
Limiting the work hours is good in theory but there are a shortage of doctors with the current system, that even mandates doctors to work a minimum according to the ACGME regulations.
If you cut the shifts in half and need to find DOUBLE the number of doctors at such low pay rate, where would anyone find them? The only option is what the UK has done: importing fake doctors from India.
And then iotrogenic causes shoot through the roof.
No, make emegency servixes pay royally, ambulant less and stationary "calm".
We have 70% women doctors. They all vanish at 35. Hmmm. When they can have the "calm" section they'll more likely work part time through. Sorry, I rather have the small bird in my hands than the big one on the roof.
Anyway, the free falling number of rural GPs is the bigger problem.
@Zeb @feld @wjmaggos
All insurance inflated health care systems pay the upper few dozen doctors a big fraction of the salaries. Around here the upper layer of hospitals earns >300k while a nurse hoovers around 60k.
Either limit hours worked to 45 and split in two (we'll find doctors who value quality over quantity) to improve care or reallocate some of it in the midlayers where mistakes are being noticed.
And with "we" I mean anywhere.