this post was submitted on 23 Mar 2026
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Capitalist countries have avoided Marx’s epidemic of overproduction because they have come to recognize that workers are also consumers. These governments have let wages rise to drive up demand.

I am sure labor pressure had nothing to do with it.

China should learn from this example. It must enrich its own citizens by encouraging collective bargaining, providing social security, removing caps on wage growth, and raising the minimum wage. Doing so could allow China’s consumption to eventually match its production prowess. If Beijing does not adopt a more pro-worker stance, its economy will become more lopsided, trade tensions will rise, and Chinese citizens will not be able to reap the full benefits of the economic miracle that they have created and rightly deserve.

This means America will do the same, right? anakin-padme-2

America will do the same, right? anakin-padme-4

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[–] Chana@hexbear.net 12 points 18 hours ago

Capitalist countries have avoided Marx’s epidemic of overproduction because they have come to recognize that workers are also consumers.

To the extent that capitalist countries even avoid overproduction it is when they have ceased to produce industrially and have come to rely extensively on imperialism. But of course, the business cycle continues with massive bubbles and troughs, with the bubble being massive over-investment of capital in the expectation of profits that doesn't pan out. It's a financialized scheme. The "product" fails to sell because it was a monopoly-seeking scheme where the overproduction was on the level of entire companies all scrambling to become a monopoly on a milquetoast app-based service that could be provided and maintained on a budget of $5 million per year for billions of people. The extra money is just for fighting over "market share". Then these companies crater when the chips fall.

Of course, even in rich imperialist countries, overproduction happens constantly. Food rots in dumpsters and fields. This loss is partially absorbed through subsidies funded by imperialism, by the petrodollar's ability to let the US print money, by the state absorbing the hit through ill-gotten gains and (in theory) putting a stop to it faster than the market would.

The poor capitalist countries do not have this option, they are the exploited, not the imperialists. They face constant classic overproduction problems and shortages, particularly when producing for export. They are entirely beholden to sanctions, tariff regimes, shifting currents. Food, oil, textiles, toys, basic electronics. They make huge quantities expecting a sale to imperialists. What happens if the imperialists renege? Firings, of course, and the 100,000 Superbowl 57 t shirts are sold to the poor of other imperialized countries and burned.

These governments have let wages rise to drive up demand.

This author is about 60 years out of date on how capitalist countries operate. Real wages have been decreasing.

Anyways, this article seems to be about transiting China to more domestic consumption, which is a good idea. But if you do it based on false faux-left framings praising imperialists, you will either fail or end up advocating for China to itself become imperialist. And look like an absolute loser stuck-up in the process.