Small Businesses In a Socialist Society

[Marshal of the People]

Hi comrades. I'll try to get my point across fairly briefly.

How would small businesses work in a socialist society? When I say small business I am referring to a small shop, restaurant, cafe, etc.

In socialism there is as little exploitation as possible and the MoP are commonly owned and controlled by the workers. This gets rid of exploitation since the workers control and own the business (the rest of the people of the world also own it however).

But how would it work with a small restaurant for example. A small restaurant is not a MoP, however it will probably hire people, which could potentially be exploited by their employer.
How would the exploitation be stopped?
Would there be some sort of regulation on the restaurant?
What if paying the workers fair wages is too expensive for the restaurant?
What incentive to the restaurant owners have for starting their restaurant?
Would they work the same in a communist system to a socialist one?

I know these sound like silly questions. However I would like to know your answers to them.

Thank you.

[exeexe]

If the socialist society isnt a communist society then this is what i would say:

Here is one way it could work:
The small business has less than X amount of workers or is a family run business:
Most likely not much change other than making sure the working conditions are great
The small business has more than X amount of workers and less workers than Y:
The workers can vote if they want to work without wage exploitation
The small business has more than Y amount of workers:
Wage exploitation will be abolished

Where Y>X and will be determined by the local community of workers at some meeting or something...



1. How would the exploitation be stopped?
2. Would there be some sort of regulation on the restaurant?
3. What if paying the workers fair wages is too expensive for the restaurant?
4. What incentive to the restaurant owners have for starting their restaurant?
5. Would they work the same in a communist system to a socialist one?

1. you just stop it rofl. You got the power to do it so you just do it
2. No
3. As long as there is no one to stop your business then you shouldnt care about the financial balance. You may not have money to pay your electrical bills but then you just continue without electricity. You just continue until you no longer wants to. If you cant pay your crew your crew wont work. So you just continue without a crew. Dont worry about your crew they can easily find work somewhere else in a social society.
And one fine day if you reached the conclusion you no longer will run this small business dont be surprised to see your old former crew come back and run the restaurant without you and to wages that are balanced to the price of the food so the restaurant can survive on its own.
4. They like to serve food
5. Its possible to be both Yes and No

[synthesis]

There are no workers in socialist society. Or, rather, there is no working class.

There is a working class in the dictatorship of the proletariat, but part of their new job is crushing the sort of small businesspeople (i.e., petite-bourgeoisie) to which you refer.

[ckaihatsu]

In socialism there is as little exploitation as possible and the MoP are commonly owned and controlled by the workers. This gets rid of exploitation since the workers control and own the business (the rest of the people of the world also own it however).


I'll make a semantic note, to say that instead of 'business' it would be more appropriate to use the term 'enterprise', like this:





In socialism there is as little exploitation as possible and the MoP are commonly owned and controlled by the workers. This gets rid of exploitation since the workers control and own the [enterprise] (the rest of the people of the world also own it however).


I say this because 'enterprise' is more generic and its meaning can be likened to that of the efforts of all of humanity -- the 'human endeavor'.


---





There are no workers in socialist society. Or, rather, there is no working class.

There is a working class in the dictatorship of the proletariat, but part of their new job is crushing the sort of small businesspeople (i.e., petite-bourgeoisie) to which you refer.


This is a good distinction of time-frame -- for the revolutionary *transition* to a fully post-capitalist social order it would be better / more desirable to focus-in on the kinds of production that are most necessary for the world's workers, and to humanity as a whole. Private-sector clientelism, as with today's 'customer service', would undoubtedly be extraneous to wholesale, widespread revolutionary efforts to redirect mass production to what really matters. (Substance over style.)





How would small businesses work in a socialist society? When I say small business I am referring to a small shop, restaurant, cafe, etc.


That said, though, once the revolutionary transition is *complete*, I'd see no reason why a self-liberated world people couldn't live the lifestyles they'd want, even if it mimicked aspects of customer service from the defunct period of capitalism. In a post-capitalist context such services could, arguably, be considered as part of the full production process.

From a past thread:





(To put it more concretely, people could just use whatever implements are around to produce whatever they like, in whatever quantities, and the products could be stored in warehouses for anyone to come and take from -- any formal discussions and social organizing of this phenomenon would only make it that much more orderly and socially useful.)


So, with this social context in mind, 'customer service' in a communist-type society could be someone's hobby, or it might be social-club-oriented, or whatever. Since no one would be left wanting for the basics of life and living, any and all personalized attention would be entirely voluntary and wholly uncoerced.

There was a recent thread that covered much of this ground:


The Customer is Always a Tyrant

http://www.revleft.com/vb/customer-always-tyrant-t188668/index.html

[Trap Queen Voxxy]

There was cafés, eateries, flower shops, etc. in the fSU. Why do you think different? Also, fuck 'mum and dad' stores or family ran businesses. Why? Half the time it's a convenient way to get around established bans on child labor and they're (the owners) assholes. The idea of family operated businesses or enterprises or what have you just makes me cringe in a way due to leniency in bullshit afforded to family units.

[Blake's Baby]

No one can be 'hired' without being exploited, unless they are paid more than they produce in surplus labour, in which case if that was the whole workforce, the enterprise would be effectively distributing more social wealth than it generated.

There would be no 'small businesses'. If someone had an idea for making a service better (let's say they were a cook or restaurant manager before the revolution) then they'd have plenty of opportunity to say 'I've got some ideas how we can arrange the communal kitchen, why don't we do x?'

That would about cover it I reckon.