Bhaskar Sunkara Thinks the Market Has a Place Under Socialism
Jacobin founding editor and The Nation president Bhaskar Sunkara joins Joe Weisenthal and Tracy Alloway to discuss his co-authored book, The Blueprint: How Socialism Can Work in the Real World. Sunkara explains how market socialism preserves consumer choice, entrepreneurship, and market pricing while eliminating traditional wage exploitation through worker-owned cooperatives, public banking, and socialized land. The conversation also explores how a socialist society would address firm failure, housing supply, antisocial behavior, public school standards, and why artificial intelligence cannot overcome the socialist calculation debate.
- Sunkara points out that in New York City, failing public schools often receive more per-pupil funding than high-performing ones, proving that cash deficits do not cause performance collapse. Read →
- Consumer choice requires market pricing. Sunkara points out that equally rationing consumer goods like coffee ignores individual preferences, making competitive markets an objective economic good. Read →
- Social democracy hits structural limits because private owners retain the power to halt investment, as seen during Sweden's capital strikes in the 1970s. Read →
- Bhaskar Sunkara, founding editor of Jacobin and president of The Nation, explicitly sides with Austrian economists Ludwig von Mises and Friedrich Hayek over central planners in the socialist calculation debate. Read →
- Bhaskar Sunkara proposes nationalizing all land and housing, drawing directly on the public land ownership model used in Singapore. Read →
- Public banks price risk and issue startup capital, charging higher interest rates on volatile ventures like restaurants rather than handing out subsidized grants. Read →