Questions!

[Spasiba]

So I've been talking to people about communism and now I want to go back here to see what you guys have to say about arguments they brought up, and while I know at least some of these have been brought up before I'd like to hear what you think, and not just a stump answer, but an indepth one if you have the time
So, what was brought up:
Lazy people leeching off the system as others work for their welfare
Will McDonalds exist?
People need incentive
Working harder and not getting paid more is stoopid.
People have to be perfect to live in that kind of society
How will progress be made
People are inherintly selfish and narcissitic, they do things for themselves
It will be corrupted itself in time
Authority needs to be around to tell people what to do
What will happen to money?
Everyone isn't equal
We need competition
something about the Venus project?...
Racism, sexism, etc & all that won't just go away, and problems like those will persist
Religious people..

My own:
A new stadium is built, and a company want's to put it's name on that, the teams playing there get more money if so. Will this situation exist? If not, why not?
If people aren't all paid the same, what exactly does more money entitle?
What are you guaranteed? Food, shelter, clothes? More?
Commodity fetishism, how can we be sure it ends? What will make people not want to buy more?
What's our answer to the environment? Recycling? Finite resources for infinite demand?
Will money's power deminish? What to do about its possibility of buying elections and other positions?

And finally, what do you think of this:
Communism isn't neccasarily against how much money you make, but how you make it.
(The amount made put to a reasonable extent)


Thank you SO much for putting up with this list, pick and choose as you like. No need to be a communist to answer, or look through that scope of things if you aren't one.

[Sprinkles]

I'm not doing all of them in detail, especially since some of them make little sense to me personally, at least in the way they're currently phrased. I did my best though. :D



Will McDonalds exist?
Why not? Perhaps in some other form, maybe it will be collectivized.
Who knows and why would it even be considered important?


People need incentive
A monetary reward isn't the only existing incentive, since for example I'm not getting paid for replying to your thread.
People can do all kinds of things for an extremely wide range of possible motives.



Working harder and not getting paid more is stoopid.
Working harder then who? "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs" means that even though not everyone can do the same kind of labour or the same amount of labor, it should not entitle them to more or even less. Everyone should do their best, but you can't expect much more than that and definitely should not punish them if they can't keep up despite doing their best.


People have to be perfect to live in that kind of society
Why? It's not an utopian idea, communism has in some form or another always existed.
The atomization of society under capitalism is the exception, not the norm in human history.


How will progress be made
What progress? Most technological progress today is not based on a profit motive at all.
Most technologies that consumer goods are based on like the internet for example, came out of research that wasn't profitable to develop at first.


People are inherintly selfish and narcissitic, they do things for themselves
It will be corrupted itself in time
Then explain charity and self-sacrifice.
Human nature and behavior is not fixed and is in reality extremely variable.


Authority needs to be around to tell people what to do
Not really. Is the only thing that stops you from stealing or killing the fear of getting caught by the authorities?
Besides legitimate authority is different from privileged authority.


What will happen to money?
Paper money will be turned into either wallpaper or toilet-paper and coins will be extensively used in the decision making process under communism.


Everyone isn't equal
They aren't? Like blacks are superior to whites and women are superior to men?
You probably mean they "aren't the same" which no-one would deny, they are all equal though.


We need competition
So? Did you expect all competitive activities like for example sports be to abolished?


Religious people..
You can be opposed to organized religion but respect personal beliefs.
Even bourgeois democracies belief in separation between the State and Church.


What are you guaranteed? Food, shelter, clothes? More?
An equal share of whatever there is, in order to satisfy your needs.



Commodity fetishism, how can we be sure it ends? What will make people not want to buy more?
Commodity fetishism isn't about consumerism and wanting to buy stuff.
It's the way commodities reflect the state of social relations of society.



And finally, what do you think of this:
Communism isn't neccasarily against how much money you make, but how you make it.
(The amount made put to a reasonable extent)
No, communism is about socializing the means of production by taking it out of privately held ownership.
Not about wage redistribution since wage labour will be abolished.

[revolution inaction]

These are really easy questions, I dont know why you are asking them, only people who don't understand communism ask stuff like this.

edit: damn should have checked for new replies before replying :)



So, what was brought up:
Lazy people leeching off the system as others work for their welfare

This wouldn't be accepted, the idea is "From each according to ability, to each according to need"



Will McDonalds exist?

the corporation will not, places where people can get burgers may if people want them to.



People need incentive

If people can work but wont then the rest of society dosn't need to provide for them



Working harder and not getting paid more is stoopid.

People wont need to work harder, and people all really do work for free, see open source software.



People have to be perfect to live in that kind of society

I think anarchist communise would be more resistant to the effects of selfish individuals, it would be almost impossible for them to gain any power.



How will progress be made

the same way as now, but faster, i don't see the issue here.



People are inherintly selfish and narcissitic, they do things for themselves

Then we must prevent any one having power over another.
I don't think most people are selfish though, there's no evidence this is the case.



It will be corrupted itself in time

How?



Authority needs to be around to tell people what to do

Who tells the authority what to do?



What will happen to money?

Most of it will be recycled, but we can keep some to put in museums



Everyone isn't equal

So? the variation between humans is quite small



We need competition

Not as much as we need co-operation, anyway people can compete over anything, money and property are not needed



something about the Venus project?...

is this something to do with the technocrats?



Racism, sexism, etc & all that won't just go away, and problems like those will persist

obviously we must fight against these problems, but they are not natural, people will not be racist or sexist if the culture they live in does not promote that



Religious people..

What about them?



My own:
A new stadium is built, and a company want's to put it's name on that, the teams playing there get more money if so. Will this situation exist? If not, why not?

There will be no money and no companies



If people aren't all paid the same, what exactly does more money entitle?

there will be no money, i don't understand what you are asking?



What are you guaranteed? Food, shelter, clothes? More?

What ever the people think is worth producing,, I assume most people what things for fun as well as survival.



Commodity fetishism, how can we be sure it ends? What will make people not want to buy more?

commodity fetism is not about buying things, but i can't describe it vary well right now



What's our answer to the environment? Recycling? Finite resources for infinite demand?

Most people care about the environment so there will chose to use environmentally sustainable methods of production and living. also demand is not infinite



Will money's power deminish? What to do about its possibility of buying elections and other positions?

There will be no money. There will been no positions where one person has power over another.



And finally, what do you think of this:
Communism isn't neccasarily against how much money you make, but how you make it.
(The amount made put to a reasonable extent)

communism is about control of the means of production, not money

[Post-Something]

Lazy people leeching off the system as others work for their welfare

Then those people have no right to take from society's spoils. Society doesn't have to care for them as they are providing nothing.


Will McDonalds exist?

Probably not. Although there will be places where you could just go and get food.


People need incentive

Yep. They don't need the incentive of exploiting others though, they could have an ambition of finding a cure for cancer, or their job position could earn them a lot of respect (for example doctor).


Working harder and not getting paid more is stoopid.

There is no money. Think of it like this: If you do your bit of work, you get access to ALL the hard work everyone else has been doing. That prawn rose marie salad is already yours.


People have to be perfect to live in that kind of society

No, not really. First of all, there is a nice quote from Nietzsche I think you should read:


All philosophers have the common failing of starting out from man as he is now and thinking they can reach their goal through an analysis of him. They involuntarily think of 'man' as an aeterna veritas, as something that remains constant in the midst of all flux, as a sure measure of things. Everything the philosopher has declared about man is, however, at bottom no more than a testimony as to the man of a very limited period of time. Lack of historical sense is the family failing of all philosophers.

Second of all, a communistic society is far more safeguarded from corruption. This is because the means of production are collectivized. Whereas, under capitalism, the system MAKES you a bad person! You HAVE to exploit, you HAVE to be greedy, you HAVE to take advantage of people if you want to stay at the top.


How will progress be made

Very easily. I'm missing the hidden premises of this argument to be honest, you'll have to clear them up for me.


People are inherintly selfish and narcissitic, they do things for themselves

First of all, bullshit. People are inherently good; it's the system that makes them selfish etc. Second of all, even if people were, it could never leak into the economic sphere of life, as there would be no way to exploit others.


It will be corrupted itself in time

You're thinking of capitalism. Communism has no antagonisms in the final stage, so it won't. The only problem we have is deciding how to get there.


Authority needs to be around to tell people what to do

Yep. But they have to be democratically recallable at all times.


What will happen to money?

[/money]


Everyone isn't equal

Yeah, that's because we live in a capitalist society...

..

But on a serious note, communism isn't trying to make everyone equal. You misunderstand communism if that's how you percieve it. The equality we're going for is economic equality, where everyone has equal access to the means of production. Obviously other equalities as well, but this is the one we feel needs to be addressed most ferverently.


We need competition

Yeah, I agree. But on a big scale, co-operation is more usefull. For example, Cuba has a lot of Doctors, so it trades it's doctors for Venezuelas Oil.


something about the Venus project?...

Seen it before, but don't know enough to comment.


Racism, sexism, etc & all that won't just go away, and problems like those will persist

They will go away. This is a complex issue, but I suggest you read some more. Read this wiki article anyways: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Base_and_superstructure_(Marxism) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Base_and_superstructure_%28Marxism%29)


Religious people..

Yeah?


My own:
A new stadium is built, and a company want's to put it's name on that, the teams playing there get more money if so. Will this situation exist? If not, why not?

This scenario would never ever exist in a communist society for so many reasons. But in short, there is no money.


If people aren't all paid the same, what exactly does more money entitle?

No money.


What are you guaranteed? Food, shelter, clothes? More?

Whatever society produces.


Commodity fetishism, how can we be sure it ends? What will make people not want to buy more?

Because people will buy things for their use value in a communist society.


What's our answer to the environment? Recycling? Finite resources for infinite demand?

The left isn't entirely on agreement.


Will money's power deminish? What to do about its possibility of buying elections and other positions?

Hahaha! No way. I'm not even going to bother with this one!


And finally, what do you think of this:
Communism isn't neccasarily against how much money you make, but how you make it.
(The amount made put to a reasonable extent)

I think that's the correct analysis of our current situation, that your relation to the means of production constitutes as your class, but it won't apply in a communistic society obviously.