These always seem to have “reprieve” on them, I assume that means the sentence is downgraded based on some kind of good behavior after the time specified, could someone tell me if this assumption is correct?
Yes. "Reprieve” in China’s context means that they will be monitored for X years, as demanded by the court. If the inmate did not withheld any criminal information and did not commit new crimes during this period, the sentence is automatically commuted to life imprisonment (paroles are possible for exceptionally good behavior).
I think that it’s a good system: it clearly punishes criminals and anti-communist elements while still offering a chance for redemption and avoiding wrongful executions.
Ah yes, life in prison, also known as redemption. In all seriousness though, comparing reality, I’d rather have that than what we do in America (hand them the keys to all of the kingdom). Theres gotta be a way to set this bitch up where rich people straight up don’t exist tho. Gotta be.
Theres definitely a way. If Earth is a collection of systems, and systems can be mathematically mapped, theres a way to distribute resources in a way that does not end up with inequality. Maybe its not practically possible, but defining it first would get us closer to the truth.
Part of the Marxist Leninist approach to political economy is that markets are actually good signals. Even if those signals are the actions that the bourgeois take.
You do have to go through some slog to gather data on how the market actually functions. The NEP was short lived and revealed a lot to the USSR, and China has the Special Economic Zones that exist to gather data on how the global market works.
The isolationist states have everything pretty well figured out, but they’re excluded from the collective labor of the international proletariat. It’s important to remain connected to the global economy in some way so you can understand exactly how the international proletariat is being exploited.
That doesn’t really answer the question of materially providing for everyone, it is only part of the picture. I’m sure the answer will simply be, the railways aren’t simply for moving people around in the end. I’ve noticed a lot of the “developed” world has production down, but waste is as abundant as the products. Now that I’ve been talking to the bears for about a year, I should look more into how China is doing on the “providing for everyone” front and try to find eastern sources. I’m sure theres political nerds who have done the leg work on the whole world no matter how the state is run. I’d like to see that too.
That doesn’t really answer the question of materially providing for everyone
the railways aren’t simply for moving people around in the end
I think you may be misidentifying the problem. Distribution logistics are not the problem. We already have both the resources and the means to distribute those resources such that everyone on the planet has more than enough to live a fulfilling life free from fear of starvation or any other unmet basic need. We also have the ability to deal with the resulting waste which is trivial in comparison to the real roadblock in the way of worldwide universal post-scarcity.
The real problem is political. The real problem is the prevention of the sequestration and hoarding of wealth and resources. The hoarding of wealth and resources also creates the conditions for concentrations of power, power that is used to maintain and enforce the system in its inequitable state. That is what has to be overcome. And socialist countries (countries in transition and led by a communist party) have overcome that to a significant degree, but it can never be complete so long as so much power is concentrated in the hands of those whose interest lies in maintaining the global system already in place, a system based on exploitation (i.e. imperialism and unequal exchange abroad and capitalism domestically). That is what we are up against as people who want to bring about worldwide post-scarcity equity, we are not up against a mere failure to map out the most efficient distribution networks, because that latter problem, despite what you’ve been told, is already solved.
Nothing is perfect, but we do have the systems to properly manage and allocate resources now.
The real value of the internet and computers is the ability to break through the barriers that limited the old revolutions. Administration can be automated in a way that liberates is from a managerial class and a large amount of labor (assuming that production is done on an as needed basis).
The Soviets knew this, and the West knows this. It’s why the systems backing modern LLMs can draw a direct line from Gosplan production matrix planning through Stafford Beer and Cybersyn.
Those systems were coopted by western financial corporations to create the modern stock trading markets and algorithms, and they’re incredibly effective since they are able to drive production through allocation of capital.
yeah i don’t get why they don’t tax these guys more. liberals throw around ideas like 100% tax after 999 million, it shouldn’t be that hard to make a functional policy with continuously increasing marginal tax
From true anon:
Ah yes, life in prison, also known as redemption. In all seriousness though, comparing reality, I’d rather have that than what we do in America (hand them the keys to all of the kingdom). Theres gotta be a way to set this bitch up where rich people straight up don’t exist tho. Gotta be.
Developing the productive forces. Takes a long time and rich people will exist while you do it, but at some point you reach communism.
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Theres definitely a way. If Earth is a collection of systems, and systems can be mathematically mapped, theres a way to distribute resources in a way that does not end up with inequality. Maybe its not practically possible, but defining it first would get us closer to the truth.
Part of the Marxist Leninist approach to political economy is that markets are actually good signals. Even if those signals are the actions that the bourgeois take.
You do have to go through some slog to gather data on how the market actually functions. The NEP was short lived and revealed a lot to the USSR, and China has the Special Economic Zones that exist to gather data on how the global market works.
The isolationist states have everything pretty well figured out, but they’re excluded from the collective labor of the international proletariat. It’s important to remain connected to the global economy in some way so you can understand exactly how the international proletariat is being exploited.
That doesn’t really answer the question of materially providing for everyone, it is only part of the picture. I’m sure the answer will simply be, the railways aren’t simply for moving people around in the end. I’ve noticed a lot of the “developed” world has production down, but waste is as abundant as the products. Now that I’ve been talking to the bears for about a year, I should look more into how China is doing on the “providing for everyone” front and try to find eastern sources. I’m sure theres political nerds who have done the leg work on the whole world no matter how the state is run. I’d like to see that too.
I think you may be misidentifying the problem. Distribution logistics are not the problem. We already have both the resources and the means to distribute those resources such that everyone on the planet has more than enough to live a fulfilling life free from fear of starvation or any other unmet basic need. We also have the ability to deal with the resulting waste which is trivial in comparison to the real roadblock in the way of worldwide universal post-scarcity.
The real problem is political. The real problem is the prevention of the sequestration and hoarding of wealth and resources. The hoarding of wealth and resources also creates the conditions for concentrations of power, power that is used to maintain and enforce the system in its inequitable state. That is what has to be overcome. And socialist countries (countries in transition and led by a communist party) have overcome that to a significant degree, but it can never be complete so long as so much power is concentrated in the hands of those whose interest lies in maintaining the global system already in place, a system based on exploitation (i.e. imperialism and unequal exchange abroad and capitalism domestically). That is what we are up against as people who want to bring about worldwide post-scarcity equity, we are not up against a mere failure to map out the most efficient distribution networks, because that latter problem, despite what you’ve been told, is already solved.
Nothing is perfect, but we do have the systems to properly manage and allocate resources now.
The real value of the internet and computers is the ability to break through the barriers that limited the old revolutions. Administration can be automated in a way that liberates is from a managerial class and a large amount of labor (assuming that production is done on an as needed basis).
The Soviets knew this, and the West knows this. It’s why the systems backing modern LLMs can draw a direct line from Gosplan production matrix planning through Stafford Beer and Cybersyn.
Those systems were coopted by western financial corporations to create the modern stock trading markets and algorithms, and they’re incredibly effective since they are able to drive production through allocation of capital.
yeah i don’t get why they don’t tax these guys more. liberals throw around ideas like 100% tax after 999 million, it shouldn’t be that hard to make a functional policy with continuously increasing marginal tax
Not sure, but I think part of it was they also had to pay back the money or something along those lines.