Distribution

[La Peur Rouge]

How would goods/items/things be distributed in a communist society?

A friend and I were discussing this the other day. Could there be some sort of distribution center were people could go and pick up whatever they needed and/or wanted? (wants within reason, of course) or could there be some sort of delivery service that could come around to people's residences and you could order what you wanted and have it delivered to you?

Not sure if this has been covered before, but any input would be awesome.

[Stephen Colbert]

I always thought of it as exactly the way things are now, except things you need or want are given to you by say, the town mechanic-- "oh your car broke down comrade let me fix that for you and in return, you can help me when I need to fix my plumbing or my computer is having problems" etc etc. Dunno why I have this hippie idealism of everyone being altruistic and no one being without aid that needs help, but hey, we are revolutionaries no? We might as well be open to any ideas for the betterment of society.

Could be wrong tho idk thats always how I envisioned it.

[DaComm]

How would goods/items/things be distributed in a communist society?

A friend and I were discussing this the other day. Could there be some sort of distribution center were people could go and pick up whatever they needed and/or wanted? (wants within reason, of course) or could there be some sort of delivery service that could come around to people's residences and you could order what you wanted and have it delivered to you?

Not sure if this has been covered before, but any input would be awesome.


I suppose it could work either way; delivery or pick-up, but that is exactly how the distribution works, people take whatever it is that will suit their needs. This is made possible via the Superabundance created most predominantly because Capitalist roadblocks in the production process that hobble productivity like firing workers because of supply/demand, limiting the amount of products they can produce, and economic crisis'. Not to mention that the 10% of Capitalists today will dissolve into the working class, which will surely raise productivity; that is, everyone in society that is capable of working will work. Lastly, another key factor leading to super-abundance is incentive which will bolster because people will feel success, accomplishment, creative, etc. from their work that they are actually involved in (outside of simply performing it like a slave), and they will be happy because of the fact that their labor directly helps/makes happy another comrade. Happiness is crucial. Unhappy workers do not do so well.

[meow]

easy. giv eme everythign.

[ckaihatsu]

I always thought of it as exactly the way things are now, except things you need or want are given to you by say, the town mechanic--

[...]


I always thought it would be like the spaceship-bound consumerism in Wall-E -- and that was waaaaaayy before Wall-E was *ever* made...(!)

x D


Heh -- just kidding.... Here's a recent treatment of this topic:





To extend this meandering direction of thought, I've always pictured the *logistics* -- beyond the information flow, which could be thought of as ubiquitous -- of a collectivized cooperative economy to be akin to several concurrent expanding ripples in a pond. The ripples represent "pulses" of productive output from each locus out into the larger society. The edges of two expanding ripples touching could be thought of as points of *transfer* from one productive center to another -- linkages in a supply chain. (Since all production would be pre-planned there would not have to be any significant waste, pictured as parts of the ripple's perimeter that radiated out to infinity.)




Realistically the pond might be better thought of as having the viscosity of *broth*, meaning that "waves" of supplies are physically / materially limited in their geographical radii of outreach, due to logistical *costs* (of transportation, etc.). In practice perhaps this highly stochastic web of logistical interconnections might simply use a communications overlay that mirrors their radii of *physical* outreach -- limited-range wi-fi "clouds" that extend out to communicate current inventories and capacities with their productive-capacity neighbors, and no further.

[Uppercut]

I would picture it like this:

In every commune, there would be different distribution centers for different goods and services, all free (in a moneyless society). Each center is run collectively by those that work there, but some positions might require someone with the most experience (a doctor's office for example) but that in no way means that there needs to be hierarchy within the office. I'm just saying it'd be useful to have someone with a Phd or an MD there.

Everyone will be free to take what they need, but there will probably have to be limits on how much one person can take of some goods (I don't expect a single family to clear out the cereal isle, but you never know). But so long as the amount is reasonable, there shouldn't be any problems.

[thatwhichisnt]

in a post scarcity communist society things go like
everyone gets what they want
everyone works what they want.

that is in a society where there is no worry about how much stuff there actually is, there is no worry about whether a person has more then you or not. and because there is so mcuh stuff it doesnt matter if you work to make mroe or not.

personally i think we could already have a almost post scarcity society now. but capitalism is fundementally inefficient and so wastes so much stuff. if that waste was abolished we could all have much more for less.
Post scarcity....really? Never heard of that before, please explain.

[meow]

where there is no scarcity of things. digitally we live in a world which is effectively post scarcity. if you want a copy of song you can get it for virtually no cost. everyone with fast access to the internet can do this. music is "post scarce". when we can do this with physical goods (cars computers etc) then we live in a post scarcity society. trouble is capitalism fundementally doesnt work with post scarcity. because capitalism works by making things scarce and then charging for them. which leads to waste. it is cheaper to throw away mountains of food (lakes of wine) then to give it away. the problem with food distribution is not that there isnt enough food. the problem is capitalism.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post_scarcity

where we can have what we want and work as much or as little as we want.

[ckaihatsu]

One thing I think we need to keep in mind about the aggregate of available goods and services is that 'scarcity' is *not* a blanket term. (This can be particularly significant when discussing productivity and economic matters with pro-market types.)

As meow is pointing out, certain things are *already* post-scarcity -- my favorite example continues to be breathable air, which is *so* prevalent and available that it wouldn't even be worth trying to *commodify* it, and we know how virtually *everything* gets commodified.... (Although I *have* heard rumors of pay-for-use "clean-air booths" in the polluted urban centers of some of the world's largest cities.)

So, in generic material terms, some goods and services are just *easier* to procure than others, regardless of the economic system -- theoretically *two* (or more) abundant-to-scarce / easy-to-hard continuums exist, one measuring availability to an average individual (within personal reach, like water or the time of day), while another could gauge availability according to the terms of the market.

What we can do as revolutionaries is to posit a *third* continuum that realistically models what would be abundant and scarce given the world's working-class control of the means of mass production. Even with free access, though, *some* goods and services would *still* remain "scarce" -- simply unrealistically procurable no matter how advanced the technology and political economy. (Could we promise tourism to Jupiter in a post-capitalist society? Probably not.)