Like, Roosevelt broke up monopolies, for instance. That stuff was insufficient, but it was SOMETHING. Unlike now, where they just let capitalists do whatever they want.

  • thethirdgracchi [he/him, they/them]
    ·
    2 years ago

    Until the last few years, no. China, from the collapse of the USSR until maybe 2016, was an integral part of the capitalist world order and a bulwark to US trade policy. It's only in very recent years, when the American establishment has realized that China is not going to capitulate to Western demands and is curtailing the influence of its capitalist sector, that it has emerged as a potential alternative. Even still, China in its current form isn't a true "alternative" in the way the Soviet Union was. China has a capitalist economy, it's merely shepherded by the ruling communist state that retains sovereign control of the country, and forces capitalists to cede to Chinese state directives when necessary (ie lockdowns and things of that nature). China is certainly better than the United States, and is a "viable alternative" in the sense of a more benign form of capitalism, but life for the average Chinese factory worker is still solidly capitalist in nature. They are paid a wage, they work for a capitalist, there are labor disputes, the hours suck, they're still poor, etc etc. Socialism by 2050 is China's current goal, but they're not a fully fleshed out viable alternative like the Soviet Union was. In this way, they're also harder to destroy, and as many would argue at this point too important for the rest of the world to be destroyed any time too.