"A short introduction to the structural problems of Soviet planning, written by economist Catherine Samary in 1988. In this extract from one of her books, Samary sums up four of them: (a) the tendency for a long-term decline of growth rates, (b) not being able to break with the methods of “extensive” growth, (c) shortages and bottlenecks in production and (d) a combination of shortage of labor power (meaning no unemployment) and “over-employment”."

http://www.socialisteconomist.com/2018/06/four-structural-problems-of-soviet.html

Behind the One-Way Mirror: A Deep Dive Into the Technology of Corporate Surveillance

https://www.eff.org/wp/behind-the-one-way-mirror


#corp #surveillance #why #eff

"If a country is an imperialist power with a strong financial system, then it can derive surplus value from other parts of the world, enabling its financial sector to grow dramatically and nevertheless remain a profitable area of business!"

www.socialisteconomist.com/2019/12/the-rate-of-profit-finance-imperialism.html

"The principal effect of TV news is to create engagement through distress. News shows cannot connect viewers to meaningful actions they might take in their own lives to relieve this distress because these actions would mean ceasing to watch TV. And this is the goal to which all others will be sacrificed: to keep you watching."

https://harpers.org/archive/2020/01/vicious-cycles-theses-on-a-philosophy-of-news/

A week ago we created a poll to ask you guys if we had to decrease the number of media sent in a day. The problem is that we created the poll specifically for the members of the channel, but instead it got spread around and received more views and votes than (at the time) there were subscribers of the channel. For this reason, we're considering the result of the poll invalid and from now on we're going to make them in the group Pantopia (@pantopia), at least for a while. We're terribly sorry for the inconvenience, but in this way it will be easier to mantain a democratic process in making this kind of decisions. Have a wonderful day you beautiful leftists ❤️

"The Dual Power Map is a strategic jump-off point for those looking to build #DualPower against the oppressive power of the state and the exploitative power of capital, neither of which have any regard for life on planet Earth, let alone Black people."

#must

https://blacksocialists.us/dual-power-map

"The hidden moments of reclaimed freedom that make any job bearable are being discovered and wiped out by bosses everywhere: That trick you used to use to slow down the machine won’t work anymore; or that window of 23 minutes when you knew your boss couldn’t watch you is vanishing. Whatever little piece of humanity survived in these fragments dies with them."

newrepublic.com/article/155666/life-algorithm

"Judging by the available profit data, the U.S. indeed seems on a long-term decline."

http://www.socialisteconomist.com/2019/12/making-america-great-again.html

"Over the weekend, developing country representatives were kept out of late night backroom negotiations where final texts were being discussed. And on the last day, the final plenary was delayed because the UNFCCC wasn’t sure they had the two-thirds quorum required to move forward. Several representatives from developing nations lacked the funds to change their flights."

https://theintercept.com/2019/12/18/un-climate-cop25/