You're assuming the only alternative to laissez-faire capitalism is a centrally planned economy, fine, but please don't call that "communism" and pretend the two are interchangeable just because the USSR called itself communist.
If we had a marginal tax rate of 100% for all profits beyond $10 million, would that be communism? If we banned the sale of certain consumer goods, would that be communism? If we banned the private ownership of certain consumer goods, would that be communism? If we mandated shared ownership by all employees of businesses exceeding a certain size or revenue, would that be communism?
If so, how is the criticism of centrally planned economies relevant? If not, why are you talking about communism?
There are gazillions of ideas other than "let the government control the entire economy" (aka state capitalism) or "let the winners of the free market do what they want and f* everyone else".
>pretend the two are interchangeable just because the USSR called itself communist.
You're not one of those that's still waiting for real communism to be implemented, because all the other attempts were done all wrong, are you?
>You're assuming the only alternative to laissez-faire capitalism
Where did I argue for laissez-faire capitalism? Pretty sure I only made the case for a market economy.
>why are you talking about communism
OP didn't make a case for regulating certain products or industries. OP made a case that individuals choosing how to spend their earnings is essentially misaligned societal resources ... as if they knew better.
>If we mandated shared ownership by all employees of businesses exceeding a certain size or revenue, would that be communism?
Yeah, you're on your way now. There are many Venezuelas on the road to Soviet Union.
Ah, because everything socialist is a slippery slope towards gulags, autocrats, mass starvation and military imperialism.
You still haven't given an argument about why "conspicuously splurging is just a waste of resources" and "there's obviously a continuum" means "state capitalism now", though.
You also haven't bothered explaining how "every company beyond a certain size or revenue must be organised as a worker's cooperative" leads to state capitalism (or whatever you're trying to express by invoking the Soviet Union as the scary end), but I'd be fine if you at least bothered actually addressing the OP you replied to rather than just a strawman.
To reiterate, this is what you say you replied to:
> individuals choosing how to spend their earnings is essentially misaligned societal resources
(and also, more implicitly "OP thinks OP knows better how those earnings should be spent and therefore advocates a centrally planned economy, i.e. state capitalism")
This is what you actually replied to:
> Conspicuously splurging is just a waste of resources.
> If a wealthy person and all her descendants save their money forever, then there's no harm to the economy.
> If she spends it digging holes, on the other hand, then that's wasting real resources.
> There's obviously a continuum, but $100 million yachts are probably closer to the digging-holes side of the continuum.
Note that this is a refutation of the GP:
> Those who invest or conspicuously splurge are a boon to the economy and to workers.
I don't see how you can go from "rich people splurging are not actually great for the overall economy" to "state capitalism now", yet that is your interpretation.
OP didn't say "rich people shouldn't be allowed to waste resources", OP only said "rich people wasting resources is bad". There's an obvious solution that doesn't require controlling the entire economy: increase marginal tax rates to reduce wealth gain and make it harder for millionaires to become billionaires.
But I suppose that too inevitably leads to the Soviet Union?
If we had a marginal tax rate of 100% for all profits beyond $10 million, would that be communism? If we banned the sale of certain consumer goods, would that be communism? If we banned the private ownership of certain consumer goods, would that be communism? If we mandated shared ownership by all employees of businesses exceeding a certain size or revenue, would that be communism?
If so, how is the criticism of centrally planned economies relevant? If not, why are you talking about communism?
There are gazillions of ideas other than "let the government control the entire economy" (aka state capitalism) or "let the winners of the free market do what they want and f* everyone else".