[confluence]

Is there a word for market based socialism? You know capitalism with hair cut upside (taxation) and a hard floor protected low side (poverty).

For example - in a developed world most people don't want anyone (lest themselves) to starve, be unable to afford an education for their children, be unemployed or be unable to access life saving healthcare.

However we must also encourage innovation and hard work (don't cap upside - just hair cut it for public utility use - aka taxation) - so people should be allowed to earn more - but they are not allowed to fall below the poverty line - ever. This is good for a mass market based economy that requires a large middle class with a decent amount of disposable income (1 rich person = 1 pair of jeans, whereas for an equivalent amount of wealth 1000 middle class people = 1000 jeans from the rich person).

If the pie is growing just like the market fundamentalists say - well then there's no problem with this. Just keep growing - you'll have more in the end - and pay for your disproportionate benefit from the use of public/common goods - aka suck it up and share children.

Indeed - with the automation I see coming within the next 2 decades - a lot of these free market fundamentalists will be, quite frankly, out of a job.

I look forward to mass unemployment.

[noonespecial]

I call it "band-pass capitalism". Its socialism at the top and bottom, but a band in the middle is capitalism.

The upside is that no one is ever homeless, the downside is that no one can really make enough to buy a Caribbean island just for themselves.

I'm in favor. It seems like what we're fumbling towards anyway, we're just doing it poorly right now.

[leto]

Systems which are similar to this include both the Nordic model and social market economies:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nordic_model

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_market_economy

[Lazare]

That's more or less what every Western country has, although we quibble about how expansive the safety net should be, and the optimal level of taxation. We often call this a "mixed" economy.

[olalonde]

An interesting solution to this is a negative income tax. I am generally libertarian leaning but I do think a negative income tax would be way better than a big government that provides various services. It allows capital markets to work properly while still providing for those who really need it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negative_income_tax

[dmorgan]

>Is there a word for market based socialism? You know capitalism with hair cut upside (taxation) and a hard floor protected low side (poverty).

It's what holds in most European countries with a welfare state (and, to a lesser degree even in the US). It has been called various things, from "the third way", to "social democracy".

Though, in Europe (and also in the US), the "free market" guys, neo-liberals and financial interest have reigned supreme since the Thatcher/Reagan era, with the dire results we see today. Kind of like the US economy actually worsened after Clinton, despite him being more "socialist" (to the degree accepted by the american public).