…I think you may have misread my comment.

I’m saying it’s broken and asking why it should be accepted as infallible.

That distinction would be a hard sell for most capitalists I know. Regulation itself is seen as tampering with the “free market”, and therefore anticapitalist.

Capitalism isn’t trading good for/with currency though. Socialist and Communist societies would still use currency as it is a lot easier than bartering everything. And in Socialists society, you can still have lending and investments.

Capitalism is the means of production and trade owned by private entities (be it a person or a corporation) to make profits.

You are right though, inevitably, capitalism leads to consolidation and monopolies which we see today.

Capitalism really is trading goods for currency, and allowing lending and investment.

That’s commerce. Commerce predates capitalism, by a lot.

Capitalism also involves other things that go beyond basic commerce, such as systems of property law to incorporate quasi-sovereignty to capital ownership. That’s more or less where we get the default model of businesses as de facto dictatorships ruled by the owner, vs. being democracies organized by stakeholders or participants. It’s a big, deep subject that’s unfortunately talked about in reductionist terms a lot. It’s probably not helpful that a lot of early (and recent) scholarship on capitalism seems to frame itself as revelation of the nature of capital and markets, as if capital and markets are natural forces and not man-made things.

This last bit- treating capital and economics as if they were laws of nature (instead of being contrived by men)- does a lot of work to obfuscate fundamental systems of power, which in turn helps keep that power unaccountable. One major source of tension between capitalism and socialism has to do with whether the sovereignty of ownership ought to be democratized or subject to democratic accountabilities.

Some examples of being subject to democratic authority is basic labor protections, the 40 hour work week, safety regulations- if the voters impose on employers the requirement that employers provide a safe working environment, it’s a counterweight to the general notion that owning the business makes one king of everything in that sphere- that is, it subordinates capital to the authority of the polity in which it operates.

I don’t think you understand how concentrated power causes society to serve the few over the many.

As long as the disparity in wealth (power) grows, more people are incentivized to serve fewer. It’s why we see the government controlled by the wealthy. It will always be this way (and get worse) so long as the disparity in wealth continues to grow.

This is by design.

You’re splitting hairs about what people call growth when the term is used most commonly to refer to the ROI and the issue with sustainable business. A perfectly sustainable business is viewed unfavorably if it doesn’t generate increased revenue beyond inflation. I.e. a company makes a revenue jump but no “new profits”, it gets sandbagged.

The coop business model says “profits” get returned to member/owners as capital credits. Everyone employed can still do really well, members get value for their money, and investors can go fuck themselves.

We need more co-ops.

I’m a millennial communist - though in any practical sense, I’m socialist. I’ve got very little faith in the system beyond it’s ability to act on its self-interest, but (as much as I’d like to believe otherwise) I believe revolution isn’t a sustainable way to bring about the change we want.

Revolution before we put in the groundwork to level wealth inequality will inevitably lead to power imbalance, and a likely collapse into autocracy. On the negative side, we see the likes of China and the USSR - massive death, famine, corruption, and a failure to deliver on the promise of worker enfranchisement. The most positive example I can think of is Cuba.

I want revolution to be a practical path forward - it brings the change we need quickly when we don’t have the time to wait and incremental transition will be all but impossible at this point, but I’d need to be convinced it won’t almost certainly lead to a worse state. What would be different about this revolution that would see it go right (or what examples am I missing?)

The DSA is not a significant political force, much less the people that radicalize out of the DSA.

In August 2023, the organization claimed 77,575 members.[1] According to the finance data for the 2021 DSA convention, the organization collected $4.6 million in membership dues in 2020.[157] The DSA allows membership dues waivers for members who “may be experiencing financial problems right now”.[158]

DSA membership in 2023 declined from 2021, when membership peaked at around 95,000 members

Even at their peak, 100k people is not a significant political force, nor what I would call an “enormous organization.”

We have different definitions of “enormous organization”