Mike Beggs

So we're here at Red Emma's Cooperative Bookstore and Coffee House in Baltimore, and I am really excited to be sitting with two of the three co-authors of the vital new book, The Blueprint, How Socialism Can Work in the Real World, Ben Burgis and Mike Beggs.

Give it up, everyone.

Hell yeah.

I think it's time we start talking about doing things differently, don't you agree? Yeah? Yeah? So let's talk about it.

Let's get all the good faith discussions and questions about like what socialism is, what it isn't and how it can work for us in the real world on the table.

And so Ben and Mike, I wanted to start things off this way with the big question.

Like you guys co-wrote this with Bhaskar Sankara, founder of Jacobin Magazine, right? Like what is your ideal goal, like, in writing this book together and publishing it now? Like, what would be the ideal definition of success for this book?

Yeah, thank you so much for all that, and I should also say that our third co-author, Bhaskar, would be here tonight, but he has a month-old baby at home, so he is on paternity leave from non-New York City events for a couple months at least.

That stance, while not indefensible, is a bit of a cop-out.

Today's guest, Mike Beggs, is the co-author, along with Ben Burgess and Bhaskar Sankara, of The Blueprint, How Socialism Can Work in the Real World, just published by Verso.

All three are associated with Jacobin Magazine.

Mike is a contributor, Ben is a columnist, and Bhaskar is founder and editorial director.

Now the planning apparatus can determine in real time what goods are or aren't selling and adjust production and distribution almost immediately.

As a counterexample to the planning skeptics, back in 2019, Lee Phillips and Michael Wozwarski published The People's Republic of Walmart, which they discussed on this show, which tried to draw lessons for a possible planned socialist economy from the experience of that company in managing its vast retail network from Bentonville, Arkansas.

Sadly, Mike Beggs and I didn't have time for that part of the discussion, but we had time for lots else.

Mike Beggs is a senior lecturer in political economy at the University of Sydney in Australia.

That stance, while not indefensible, is a bit of a cop-out.

Today's guest, Mike Beggs, is the co-author, along with Ben Burgess and Bhaskar Sankara, of The Blueprint, How Socialism Can Work in the Real World, just published by Verso.

All three are associated with Jacobin Magazine.

Mike is a contributor, Ben is a columnist, and Bhaskar is founder and editorial director.

Now the planning apparatus can determine in real time what goods are or aren't selling and adjust production and distribution almost immediately.

As a counterexample to the planning skeptics, back in 2019, Lee Phillips and Michael Wozwarski published The People's Republic of Walmart, which they discussed on this show, which tried to draw lessons for a possible planned socialist economy from the experience of that company in managing its vast retail network from Bentonville, Arkansas.

Sadly, Mike Beggs and I didn't have time for that part of the discussion, but we had time for lots else.

Mike Beggs is a senior lecturer in political economy at the University of Sydney in Australia.