Muke BTFO

youtube.com/watch?v=5JtOmKK1d0k

3:53 Marx and Engels basically coined the term "communism", so equating communism with Marxism is perfectly reasonable. Marx and Engels also used the terms "communism" and "socialism" interchangeably, and the idea that socialism was a transitional phase that would lead to communism was introduced by Lenin, in the 20th century. The guy is clearly talking about the Leninist definition of socialism as a transitional period, where the state controls all property.

4:20 Socialism (in the Marxist/Leninist transitional-sense), absolutely is the state ownership of the means of production. To quote the Communist Manifesto, "The proletariat will use its political supremacy to wrest, by degree, all capital from the bourgeoisie, to centralise all instruments of production in the hands of the State". Do you understand the meaning of the words "centralise all instruments of production in the hands of the State"? – "this is basic shit."

5:03 Yes, you are restricted from owning a business under socialism, that's what the abolition of private ownership of the means of production implies. How exactly do you think people would go about abolishing private ownership of the means of production, or abolishing markets, without criminalizing private business ownership?

5:25 Your ideas aren't nuanced, they are muddled, and you're being totally obtuse – obviously he is talking about socialism, in the common, Leninist, transitional-phase sense, where the state controls the means of production! Seriously, this should be obvious.

6:03 "it's not like you can have the KGB come down and . . . throw you in the gulag if you try to make a lemonade stand. It's just that because markets have been abolished . . . starting a business, again, . . . how would you do that even? " How do you propose "abolishing markets" in the first place without outlawing private ownership of the means of production (which is the criminalization of things like running a lemonade stand for profit)?

8:14 In the Marxist/Leninist framework, socialism is the transitional phase between capitalism and communism. So, in your mind/according to whatever school of thought you belong to, what is the transitional phase between capitalism and socialism, and what is the difference between socialism and communism? I'm genuinely curious.

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en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economies_of_scale
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11:53 "the best examples to use would be the Paris, German, and Hungarian communes, and revolutionary Catalonia." Yeah, the Paris Commune, was able to last just over 2 months, and it did not abolish private property in the means of production, and employers continued to own private property and employees kept working for wages. What a wonderful example of the fact that socialism can really work, for long periods of time too! I'm not sure what you mean by "German and Hungarian communes", but if you mean the Volga German Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, which did last as part of the USSR until 1941, great example! Of course, by 1919 pastors were labeled as "counterrevolutionaries", and were sent to Siberian gulags, along with other political prisoners, but other than that, they weren't authoritarian at all! If you meant the Hungarian Soviet Republic, which lasted about 3 months, this is another great example. Sure, they did have the "Lenin boys", as they were called, who went around persecuting political opponents, executing people without trial, and terrorizing the countryside, but other than that, they weren't authoritarian at all! Revolutionary Catalonia is another good example! I mean, yes, the Catalonian anarchists did engage in a wave of horrific violence and terrorism, where thousands of political prisoners were executed, hundreds of churches were burnt to the ground or confiscated, and priests and nuns were regularly murdered, etc. but other than all that, revolutionary Catalonia was truly the paragon of a peaceful socialist experiment that wasn't authoritarian in any way!

16:00 "You still have statistics for supply and demand . . . and now we have computers which can easily calculate all that shit." Yeah, now we have computers, which can easily calculate all that shit! Are you joking? Do you really think that "statistics and computers" can allow a socialist bureaucracy to accurately asses the millions of constantly changing values and wants of consumers and producers, and the millions of costs and benefits associated with different methods of production, and the availability of all inputs that are needed to undergo every specific task, and the scarcity of different resources relative to each other and relative to people's changing values, and the highly specific, complex knowledge that's involved in each area of production, and then efficiently direct the coordination of all of these factors? You would need ridiculously advanced AI, that could read the minds of everyone involved, among other things. The idea that statistics and computers can currently solve the economic calculation problem is asinine.

16:45 "that . . . Marx quote I gave earlier actually completely destroys the economic calculation problem because it says that it's a problem of socialism, but even trying to apply market . . . reasoning to socialism just doesn't make sense." The economic calculation problem only applies to socialism because socialism lacks market signals, which are what allow people in capitalist economies to efficiently coordinate economically. It's not "market reasoning", it's just reasoning.

17:50 "Communism is the only system that allows for the true flourishment of the arts, because it's the only system where you do not need to labor to sustain your very existence, and you can actually focus on the arts, and on what you truly find passionate." Oh come on, are you actually serious? Marx and Engels recommended an "equal liability of all to work" in the Communist Manifesto – this means that everyone has to work. You, an able-bodied man, of all people, would be required to work your ass off for comparatively little in exchange (your "ability" is greater than your "needs"). Working isn't voluntary under Marxist socialism, and it's not like everyone is allowed to just hang-out and make art all the time. Marx is saying that refusing to work, if you are able, should be illegal, and in socialist countries, refusing to work was often considered counter-revolutionary/treasonous, and punished severely. Why do you think that working would be voluntary under socialism?

19:26 The Labor Theory of Value is false. Do you people actually believe that values are objective? The Marginal Revolution destroyed the LTV, and it's hard to believe that there are people who still take the LTV seriously. Although some people still believe that the earth is flat, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Anyway, values are subjective.

That's not true though

They didn't make up the word but they basically popularized it.

Don't do that.

He mentioned it in other books but I had the Communist Manifesto on hand.

there are no brakes on this train

yaaaahh….

Didn't watch the video, but I'll ask anyway: OP, what makes you believe that production cost per unit going up when you produce more is a good rule-of-thumb assumption? Do you have anything empirical to back up your belief? I don't want to give anybody here personal data, but based on my job experience I call that a very unrealistic assumption.

He just got a bump from Sargon too. He has 675,786 subscribers.

That's literally the opposite of what happens. Economies of scale is basic economics and also pretty obvious if you think about it at all.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economies_of_scale