Question for Anarcho-Communists.

[Skramz]

In a gift economy, who decides what needs what? Would the commune as a whole do it or would there be a specific group of people?

And how about stuff like video games, CD's, Movies, Computers, books, etc. be handed out? With no wage system, would it be given out just like other stuff would?

[Stranger Than Paradise]

Communities as a whole would organise the distribution of goods. I can't see any reason why those things would not be distributed on the same basis as everything else.

[Tatarin]

In a gift economy, who decides what needs what? Would the commune as a whole do it or would there be a specific group of people?

I'd say a combination both. Well, of course, the commune would decide what is needed, and a group could then be assigned to steer the needed resources to what is needed.


And how about stuff like video games, CD's, Movies, Computers, books, etc. be handed out?

Most likely electronically, or in short, legal internet piracy. People who wish for high quality copies of a work could go to a public "printing" facility.

Books are already available in electronic format (PDF files), and there is some work in doing "pdf paper" in where you could download a book and read it on a special paper. For ordinary books there is always the library, and as printing press will still be around for some time, that would be public domain.


With no wage system, would it be given out just like other stuff would?

Electronic ways are practically unlimited and have no base for demand. All works would in one way or another be available to all through that medium.

Physical books, CDs, etc., is a little harder question as material for those must be gathered. There could be two types of facilities, one for mass production of needed books like scientific and historical ones, and the other for private use. The private facility would form a line in where you choose what book you want printed.

[ellipsis]

I think that first people should produce as much as what they need as possible and also practice conservation/reduce personal consumption and waste creation. Second people should be able to trade labor or products of the labor to others; if I grow tomatoes and lettuce, any extra I could trade for meat from my neighbor's farm. Intrapersonal and communal economic relations should be the basis of any socialist economy in my opinion. Third, complex manufactured goods would have to be coordinated on the macro scale. The ideal model for this would be economic blocs of worker owned means of production (factories, mines, transport, etc.). Digital distribution would be extremely effective as long as high-speed internet infrastructure was build for all areas.

[F9]

No one will decide what you need, unless there are some issues with production, something that will probably happen short time after revolution.When the production gets steady, the person can get what s/he wants, by him/her self.
The same with the things you mentioned, there should be care for making enough, if not more of those things, so anyone who wants get it.

Fuserg9:star:

[The Essence Of Flame Is The Essence Of Change]

To the OP I suggest you read Kropotkin's The Conquest Of Bread, it provides a good outline of the differences between anarcho communism and the other conceptions of communism

[Decolonize The Left]

In a gift economy, who decides what needs what? Would the commune as a whole do it or would there be a specific group of people?

The individual will always decide what s/he needs. The community will decide together how to produce these things, and how they ought to be distributed so as to provide for the needs of all.


And how about stuff like video games, CD's, Movies, Computers, books, etc. be handed out? With no wage system, would it be given out just like other stuff would?

They would be produced according to need. So, yes.

- August