Life In Communism

[Ander]

Could somebody please tell me how life would be in a communist society? I would like a rundown of the typical day or even better, week. For example, how would Frank the farmer live? What about Molly the shelf builder? And Tom the construction worker?

What would their day or week consist of? From morning to night, how would it all work out? Include work, free time, weekdays, weekends, etc. Just make it realistic as possible.

I hope this isn't too much of a weird request, I just thought it would be interesting if some one could tell me. Thanks a lot.

[nickdlc]

Well of course anything we say will be totally wrong because our vision of what communist society will just be like capitalism but just a tad different.

Frank will probably wake up at 2pm do farming with the latest equipment for 4 hours then go participate in activities with his fellow comrades or do other productive stuff.

Molly the shelf builder will wake up around 4pm go to work for 2 hours with her fellow shelf building comrades. after work she'll go to R_P_A_S's dad's restaurant and eat some perogies. The food is free and yummmmy!

Tom the construction worker will wake up at 8am go to work for 6 hours (a pretty long day). For two of those hours the constuction comittee made up of all workers on that job will look over plans given to them by the house planners workers comittee on how rooms for the new commune should be built. Tom is happy.

Basically there will be a lot of workers comittee's and lots of time to just do whatever you feel like.

[Ander]

Hmm...wouldn't Tom get a little pissed off that his friends Molly and Frank work less than he does? And how would the food be free? Would there be work every single day?

[STABD]

The food would be free because the farm equipment is free and so is the land. The land is free because there will be such a thing as the great land commons and the farming equipment is free because the factory workers work for free. They work for free because food is free. So basically, beacause it can be free, there is no need to require up front gain.

[Ander]

Also...what about jobs nobody wants? Who the hell wants to be a garbage collector?

What if someone refuses to do their work?

[bezdomni]

Four words: Mechanization of the workplace

or one word: Robots.

[nickdlc]

Hmm...wouldn't Tom get a little pissed off that his friends Molly and Frank work less than he does? And how would the food be free? Would there be work every single day? Frank volunteered for the job so he know's what he's getting into before hand. Food is free because food right now could be provided for everyone in abundance and im extrapolating that this will be the same in communsim. I don't think there would be work every single day.Maybe it'll be more of a "barn raising" kind of thing i.e. say we need to build some appartment volunteers are gathered up taught how to do the work and it gets done, no more appartments are made until there is demand for them again. These volunteers then go do other things and if more apartments are going to be made they get e-mailed if they want to participate in another apartment project.


Who the hell wants to be a garbage collector? Well then don't make garbage (reduce reuse and recycle, empahasis on first two) and don't make me bring up composting again :ph34r:


What if someone refuses to do their work? It would be odd since they voluntered to do it in the first place. I doubt anyone would just play video games all day especially when you could be meeting people, making decisions with comrades at work and generally just having a wicked time in the socialist commonwealth.

[Raj Radical]

Originally posted by [email protected] 5 2006, 05:00 AM
Also...what about jobs nobody wants? Who the hell wants to be a garbage collector?

What if someone refuses to do their work?
For jobs that are so "horrendous" (Cleaning up bird shit, mopping etc.) wouldnt be considered a profession, more like a chore.

Either it would be done by the people who would benefit from the job being done , or the 'bad jobs' split up collectivly by the community.

[dannie]

Originally posted by [email protected] 5 2006, 06:00 AM
Also...what about jobs nobody wants? Who the hell wants to be a garbage collector?

What if someone refuses to do their work?
a rotation schedule can be used were the members of the collective do these crappy chores on a turn basis.

btw, i wouldn't mind being a garbage collector, i like to do usefull stuff

[Ander]

These volunteers then go do other things and if more apartments are going to be made they get e-mailed if they want to participate in another apartment project.

Well then that's not fair because construction workers would only have to work whenever there was stuff getting built but a doctor for example would need to be ready to work at any moment.


I doubt anyone would just play video games all day especially when you could be meeting people, making decisions with comrades at work and generally just having a wicked time in the socialist commonwealth.

But I'm sure there would be people who do. Right now there are people who stay at home all day and never go out, why would everyone suddenly change and become fun-lovin' socialist robots?


Either it would be done by the people who would benefit from the job being done , or the 'bad jobs' split up collectivly by the community.

Again, what if somebody flat out refused to do a bad job? What if the community gave X chore to Y Person and he just said no.

[STABD]

Then the comunity will say, hey man why should we give you food or let you chill in that house we built if you wont help out.

[R_P_A_S]

Is just so damn hard to imagine and picture it. trust me. all this questions we ask are not to contradict anyone here who believes in it. but is so that we can get more convinced. I want to be convinced!

[Delta]

Look into parecon. (http://www.zmag.org/parecon/indexnew.htm). In parecon, people are renumerated for effort only, and thus everyone will have the incentive to work.

Communism may work in the distant future, when people have built up enough solidarity with each other and selfish capitalist thought has withered away, but for the immediate future I think a participatory economy (parecon) is the way to go. It's fairly new to me, but so far it seems to be superior to centrally planned socialism. It actually involves workers' and consumers' councils, and so in some respects is anarcho-syndicalist in nature (although not so anarcho- since parecon doesn't assume a particular political situation, but would be compatible with anarchism).

[nickdlc]

I want to be convinced! well what do you want? were not fortune tellers.


Well then that's not fair because construction workers would only have to work whenever there was stuff getting built but a doctor for example would need to be ready to work at any moment. Most likely he'd be doing other jobs while not doing construction.


But I'm sure there would be people who do. Right now there are people who stay at home all day and never go out, why would everyone suddenly change and become fun-lovin' socialist robots? Well to bad for those people. They can die a lonely overweight life. Everyone would become a fun loving socialist robot cause the government would implant chips into them to make them behave that way :ph34r:


Again, what if somebody flat out refused to do a bad job? What if the community gave X chore to Y Person and he just said no. Then they don't have to. Again this is a voluntary system.


Look into parecon.. Parecon is a bad idea and would most likely devolve into a bureaucratic nightmare!!
Articles On Parecon (http://nefac.net/search/node/parecon)

[ComradeOm]

Trust me when I say this – everyone here who talks about a communist society is talking shit. No one - not me, not you, not Marx – has any idea of the particulars of communism. Indeed the only fact that we know for certain is that it will be a classless society. Everything else is pure speculation

I’ve always liked one of Redstar’s analogies. Imagine that you’re a merchant in 15th century Venice. You know that capitalism is better than the current feudal mode of production but there’s no way that you could possibly imagine industrialisation or the emergence of the modern bourgeois state.