Economic control patterns persist regardless of capital ownership form

Evidence

By no means does private ownership of capital alone lead to the overarching power of business elites to control economic life. Indeed, ownership is merely an amorphous legality. Thus in state socialist countries such as the Soviet Union, many of the patterns of economic control found in the United States are observed although private ownership of capital is non­ existent, Indeed, the degree to which education is similar in capitalist and state socialist countries can be attributed, we believe, to the similarity in their respective mechanisms of social control in the economic sphere. — Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis, Schooling in Capitalist America, 602

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to earlier book claims that repression stems from the economic power structure rather than schooling, and parallels the Frankfurt School finding that Pollock’s Soviet study proved only the possibility of organized capitalism. — connects to: Economic property rights persist independent of legal recognition; Hereditary economic power persists despite the abolition of political dynasties — Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, 2250; Capital precedes and shapes resistance rather than resistance driving capital — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 923 (+8 more)
• QUESTION: If ownership absence doesn’t change economic control patterns, what exactly does state socialism alter — and where does this leave the book’s own earlier case that private ownership is the root problem?

Broader Connections

• Economic property rights persist independent of legal recognition #corroborates (0.92)
• Hereditary economic power persists despite the abolition of political dynasties #exemplifies (0.85) — Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, 2250
• Information-owning firms remain capitalist despite not owning means of production. #exemplifies (0.80) — Nick Srnicek, Platform Capitalism, 42
• Regime legacies persist independently of the conditions that created them #corroborates (0.78)
• Common ownership of competing firms suppresses competition and inflates prices #corroborates (0.75)
• Capitalism breaks with prior production yet continues domination over objects #expands (0.75) — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 1602
• Capital precedes and shapes resistance rather than resistance driving capital #expands (0.72) — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 923