Draft 2: Added some features. Over the past year this blog has argued for a materialist political economy. The argument has three layers, and each one rests on the one before it. Physical. Labor value is conserved when goods are exchanged. That one fact is supposed to make prices follow values and split the populationContinue reading “Materialist Economics: Modeling My Own Claims”
Tag Archives: economics
Materialist Economics, Part 5: Concluding Remarks
This proposal is not fully communist in the way Marx imagined. It does not abolish all market exchange. It does not assume perfect social harmony. What it offers is a framework in which the productive capacity of society is directed by the people who depend on it, backed by empirical science. The disagreements with MarxContinue reading “Materialist Economics, Part 5: Concluding Remarks”
Materialist Economics, Part 4: Objections and Responses
The Motivation Problem If necessary goods are readily available, why would anyone work at all? The objection rests on the premise that necessary goods are freely distributed. They are not. They are produced by the government sector and sold at public stores in exchange for labor vouchers. A person who does not work does notContinue reading “Materialist Economics, Part 4: Objections and Responses”
Materialist Economics, Part 3: Accountable Planning
Constitutional Human Rights and the Rule of Law Without protected human rights, it is impossible to know the will of the people. Any system of democratic production requires, as a precondition, constitutional protections for speech, assembly, and political participation. The rule of law must be upheld. Legal challenges must meet reasonable evidential standards, and accusationsContinue reading “Materialist Economics, Part 3: Accountable Planning”
Materialist Economics, Part 2: The Problem
Consider a recurring pattern in international affairs. A major power backs an armed faction abroad. When that faction takes power, its human rights record becomes a pretext for military contracts and arms sales. The crisis generates jobs in the defense industry while destroying livelihoods elsewhere. This is job creation through destruction. A simple alternative wouldContinue reading “Materialist Economics, Part 2: The Problem”
Materialist Economics, Part 1: Mechanical Materialism
The theoretical framework behind this proposal is mechanical materialism, a philosophical system argued for by the economist Paul Cockshott and the philosopher Katerina Kolozova. It seeks to extend the Newtonian approach to science to sociology, unifying both under a combined framework that employs conservation laws, statistical mechanics, and information theory. Researchers associated with this programContinue reading “Materialist Economics, Part 1: Mechanical Materialism”
Free Rider Problem vs. the goal of socialism
Leftists shouldn’t try to ban competition altogether. The problem with capitalism is that the profit motive leads to dynamics like the business cycles: Businesses are profitable when they succeed in lowering how much employees are paid. If companies succeed in systematically lowering pay, they will have difficulty selling their products back to the general population.Continue reading “Free Rider Problem vs. the goal of socialism”
What is to be done?
Update: An incomplete elaboration of this system: https://snapshotsofthelabyrinth.photo.blog/2026/03/21/materialist-economics-part-3-accountable-planning/ https://snapshotsofthelabyrinth.photo.blog/2026/03/21/materialist-economics-part-4-objections-and-responses/ The removal mechanics are misleading as written. First America backs the Islamists. When the Islamists come to power, America says they’re violating human rights. Then America use that as a justification to buy weapons. This is how they create jobs. Why can’t we create jobs byContinue reading “What is to be done?”
