/59/ Übermenschen of Capital Pt. 3 ft. Leigh Phillips & Michal Rozworski

Aufhebunga Bunga

On democratic planning.

[An old episode from January 2019 – we're re-uploading it because it's good, and also to complete our new 'Collections' on Patreon]

Leigh Phillips and Michal Rozworski propose we look at Walmart and other giant corporations as sites of planning, not of markets -- and that this fact proves planning works. Rather than rely on markets and market actors to manage production and distribution, we should it ourselves. Do advances in computing mean that the old problems of planning have been overcome? Does planning lead to authoritarianism -- or does authoritarianism lead to bad planning? Can we overcome the age of Capitalist Übermenschen?

Readings:

• People's Republic of Walmart (Verso, March 2019)

• Planning the Good Anthropocene, Leigh & Michal in Jacobin

• Pt. III of Socialism: Utopian and Scientific, Friedrich Engels

  Bunga theme music: Jonny Mundey

  Bunga design: ramune.io