A Few Questions [Archive]

999

23rd July 2006, 20:24

Hi, I am currently doing a school project and I need to create a utopia. I have a few questions, as I have just begun discovering communism in the past month or two.

1. All pay is equally distributed to all in the society, correct? If this is done, and there is no state, then how is the money equally distributed?

2. If freedom is the absense of a government, is there anyone, or group of people designated to "run" or "organize" what is happening in the country?

3. The economy, there still needs to be production of things like computers, clothing, houses, etc., and there must be some way to pay these people. Not necessarily a capital, but to limit what one person can have? How does a communist economy work? (any good sites or anything?)

Thanks, and Im sure that I will come up with more questions soon.

23rd July 2006, 20:31

1. All pay is equally distributed to all in the society, correct? If this is done, and there is no state, then how is the money equally distributed?

There is no money.

2. If freedom is the absense of a government, is there anyone, or group of people designated to "run" or "organize" what is happening in the country?

It is absense of government in the proper sense of the word (or, as we know government today). Government under a truly communist society will be nothing more than the simple administration of things.

3. The economy, there still needs to be production of things like computers, clothing, houses, etc., and there must be some way to pay these people. Not necessarily a capital, but to limit what one person can have? How does a communist economy work? (any good sites or anything?)

Nobody is paid. Everyone works at what job they want and because of that they are allowed the fruits of society's labour (in other words, everything is free).

Whitten

23rd July 2006, 20:40

There is no money under communism. Everyone contributes to society through work and is thus entitled to a share of what is produced by society on the whole. The "state" will be abolished, along with corporations, and anything they previously managed, will be taken over by commune councils, workers councils, or syndicates, which opperate on the principle of direct democracy

999

23rd July 2006, 20:46

Everyone contributes to society through work and is thus entitled to a share of what is produced by society on the whole.

If everyone is entitled to a share, what is a share defined as? If there is no payment, then there is no limit to what a person takes. Although after they take it, it doesn't BELONG to them, they are still taking it away from others that could also use it. What is there to limit the amount that one takes from the society compared with what they contribute?

The "state" will be abolished, along with corporations, and anything they previously managed, will be taken over by commune councils, workers councils, or syndicates, which opperate on the principle of direct democracy

So a group would take over (commune council, or other examples listed), and all decisions made depending on the decisions of the people in the society?

Whitten

23rd July 2006, 21:05

If everyone is entitled to a share, what is a share defined as? If there is no payment, then there is no limit to what a person takes. Although after they take it, it doesn't BELONG to them, they are still taking it away from others that could also use it. What is there to limit the amount that one takes from the society compared with what they contribute?

True, and the answer is simply, reasonable limit. For example, you wont be able to go into your local shop (or whatever we call the places that distribute resources post-revolution) and take all there food stuffs, as the person in-charge of running it will refuse.

So a group would take over (commune council, or other examples listed), and all decisions made depending on the decisions of the people in the society?

To explain further. Once communism is attained, everything will be decenteralised, with the state gone, so all decisions will be made by smaller groups governing a community/factory etc. For example, a TV factory is liberated and its workers need to decide how to run things. The logical way to do this is to hold a meeting, or council, and give each worker a vote in making every decision. It is possible that repressentitives will be elected to a council in the larger factories to debate the decisions, but any decision would still be voted upon by all the workers first. This later system is likely to be used in managing towns, in which smaller blocks or communities would use direct democracy to manage the running of the neighbourhood, and appoint a (recallable) representative to a town "council".

You claim to be new to communist theory, so reading the works of Karl Marx (and others if you feel up to it) would be a good idea, although it may be somewhat time consuming. Basicly "Communism" is a very vauge theory and there are many versions and interpretations of it(Orthadox Marxism, Council Communism, Autonomous marxism, anarcho-communism, anarcho-syndicatalism, marxism-leninism, marxism leninim (trotskyism), marxism leninism (hoxhaism), marxism-leninism-maoism etc). Almost everyone has there own take on the theory, so if you come across something your not certain about give it some thought, and see if you can come up with a solution within the context of Communism, it is YOUR idea of Utopia after all. If you've got any more questions I'd be happy to help.

23rd July 2006, 21:06

999

23rd July 2006, 21:24

Thanks for the responses :D

From each according to his abiliy, to each according to his need.

Where is the line between need and want? Say someone has a 13" television, and the television manufacturers come out with a 25" television, whats going to stop everyone from getting one of these new TVs? Like... what is to stop people from constantly wanting the latest technology; computer upgrades, game consoles, gps systems, etc.
Or is technology slowed down so that people don't always want the latest? Because I feel that it is just crazy to stop moving forward in technology as that would be wasting knowledge that we have the ability of expanding.

You claim to be new to communist theory, so reading the works of Karl Marx (and others if you feel up to it) would be a good idea, although it may be somewhat time consuming.

I have downloaded The Communist Manifest and Capitalist I by Marx, and still need to get around to solidly reading through them.

asicly "Communism" is a very vauge theory and there are many versions and interpretations of it(Orthadox Marxism, Council Communism, Autonomous marxism, anarcho-communism, anarcho-syndicatalism, marxism-leninism, marxism leninim (trotskyism), marxism leninism (hoxhaism), marxism-leninism-maoism etc). Almost everyone has there own take on the theory, so if you come across something your not certain about give it some thought, and see if you can come up with a solution within the context of Communism

Yes, I am still trying to get more of a feel for my take on the communist theory, and have not yet realized which interpretation I would follow.

Thanks for the help!

Whitten

23rd July 2006, 21:32

Where is the line between need and want? Say someone has a 13" television, and the television manufacturers come out with a 25" television, whats going to stop everyone from getting one of these new TVs? Like... what is to stop people from constantly wanting the latest technology; computer upgrades, game consoles, gps systems, etc.
Or is technology slowed down so that people don't always want the latest? Because I feel that it is just crazy to stop moving forward in technology as that would be wasting knowledge that we have the ability of expanding.

I'm not going to pretend to have an answer for everything. The main reason for people organising councils is because we cant predict exactly how things will be in the future. A possibility in the case of the computers would be that the newest models of computers go to public cyber cafes first, until they are in abundance, when they can be distributed fairly amongst the populous.

999

23rd July 2006, 21:44

I'm not going to pretend to have an answer for everything.

No worries, I really appreciate all the help :)

A possibility in the case of the computers would be that the newest models of computers go to public cyber cafes first, until they are in abundance, when they can be distributed fairly amongst the populous.

Ah, I understand. That is a very good idea, as public benefit is more important than personal.
Or something like...
Distributors would allow you to take newer technology/better things, once they are offered to the public, depending on what you currently have at your fingertips. For example, someone with a Pentium II (well, the equivalent) would be first in line to take a Pentium IV (equivalent) over someone with a PIII. Although in a way this would be considered taking away freedoms, wouldnt it?

Whitten

23rd July 2006, 21:46

It may be, depends on your outlook. I'd say thats a fairly reasonable way of expecting things to work though.

999

24th July 2006, 00:00

Since there is no money, how is travel possible? Although it would be possible to get to another country, there is absolutely no way that a person cannot survive in the other country because they have absolutely no money, and they are not able to contribute to the other society while on a vacation.
So, if vacations are allowed to other countries, what way would they be done?

Whitten

24th July 2006, 00:46

This is why almost all types of communist advocate (at least to some degree) world revolution as necessary. Until world revolution is attained, or near (being no major capitalist powers remaining), it is unlikely that money would be done away with entirely, however this is one of the topics that the different branches of communism are divided on. Marxists-Leninists, for example, would usually support the use of money and value goods and services based on the Labour Theory of Value, as opposed to capitalists supply and demand. Some of the more libertarian ideologies wouldnt not be supportive of this idea, however.