Socialism is not synonymous with collectivism. No socialist society I am aware of has a 100% collectivist economy with zero private-sector activity. The Chinese collectivized agriculture during the early years of the revolution, later decollectivized it when they felt the time was right to cultivate individual initiative (Carma Hinton produced a long documentary which you can see on Vimeo in which Chinese villagers talk extensively about the de-collectivization process). As you should be aware, China now enjoys a robust mixed economy; a publicly owned central bank directing investment in long-term infrastructure, both material and immaterial, along side a vibrant private sector. One can assume they will pragmatically continue to fine-tune the balance as circumstances require.
This idea that Marxists sit around waiting for a "single well-organized unit of ownership" to emerge from the vibrant chaos of modern capitalism which they can then somehow magically capture is daft. This is not how actually existing socialist societies have been built. That is not a Marxist fairy tale, that is your fairy tale.
No, that is Marx's own fairy tale. See his comments on "free trade" if you don't believe me. Now that Communist China is experiencing its own economic implosion as their real estate bubble bursts and associated banks fail, while citizens with bank deposits are expropriated in the process, we'll see how valid the rest of your assessment is...
Socialism is not synonymous with collectivism. No socialist society I am aware of has a 100% collectivist economy with zero private-sector activity. The Chinese collectivized agriculture during the early years of the revolution, later decollectivized it when they felt the time was right to cultivate individual initiative (Carma Hinton produced a long documentary which you can see on Vimeo in which Chinese villagers talk extensively about the de-collectivization process). As you should be aware, China now enjoys a robust mixed economy; a publicly owned central bank directing investment in long-term infrastructure, both material and immaterial, along side a vibrant private sector. One can assume they will pragmatically continue to fine-tune the balance as circumstances require.
This idea that Marxists sit around waiting for a "single well-organized unit of ownership" to emerge from the vibrant chaos of modern capitalism which they can then somehow magically capture is daft. This is not how actually existing socialist societies have been built. That is not a Marxist fairy tale, that is your fairy tale.
No, that is Marx's own fairy tale. See his comments on "free trade" if you don't believe me. Now that Communist China is experiencing its own economic implosion as their real estate bubble bursts and associated banks fail, while citizens with bank deposits are expropriated in the process, we'll see how valid the rest of your assessment is...