DS 53: Bhaskar Sunkara
Summary
Joshua Citarella interviews Bhaskar Sunkara about his book *The Blueprint*, which proposes a market socialist model to address the failures of Soviet-style planning. Sunkara argues for economic democracy through worker-owned enterprises and regulated markets, drawing on historical debates between Mises and Lange. The discussion also covers the erosion of class-based voting, the need for socialists to adapt rhetoric for rural areas, and the distinction between public planning for essential services and market mechanisms for consumer goods.
Topics discussed
Introduction: The burden of socialist tradition
Socialism as egalitarianism and the debate on wage labor
Universalism, voting rights, and the arc of history
Critique of utopian socialism and historical planning failures
The economic calculation debate and Soviet planning limits
Class dealignment and adapting socialist rhetoric for rural voters
Market socialism: Worker ownership and democratic workplaces
Public vs. private sectors and acceptable inequality levels
Incentives, the Swedish model, and wage earner funds
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