"From each, according to his ability. To each, according to his need."
Means simply that every person is provided with what they need, not necessarily so much in "return" for something, just that everyone gets what they need and the way they do that is that everyone gives according to their ability. Like if you can build a house, you help build houses, and people who need those houses would get them.
I drive a Mini Cooper. I don't feel like a hypocrite, someone else here drives a hybrid, most of which are around the same price or more. It's not a matter of it being a "capitalist luxury." It's this simple... the fact is, we live in a capitalist society because it is beyond our control, we were born into it and the most we can do is try to change it, but that doesn't always work. So if you work in order to pay for your car, be happy with that. No matter where you work, if you're actually working, that is, not heading or running a company, but if you are actually a true worker, then you are one of the exploited. So why should you be ashamed of the things you can get with what little percentage you get of the wealth that company generates from your work?
Lastly, I'd like to mention that if you lived in a communist society you'd probably have a lot MORE than you do now, not necessarily the same things, but overall a lot MORE. Furthermore there would be enough public transportation that it would not be crowded and it would exist everywhere, not just in areas around or within major cities. On top of that, we'd probably STILL have cars.... and why the hell not, cars can be produced from a majority of machine labor. The fact is, and I've said this a million times, communism does not mean poverty, it does not mean loss of individuality, and it does not mean more work for less things. If anything it is the complete opposite of these things.
Money would not... money is destroyed, but money is not a luxury, it is a mans to acquire luxury. As far as "nice" houses, I suppose it depends on what you call nice. Is someone going to have a 50 room mansion if it's just them and a child? no. But the difference is that we will all have houses, and our houses will fit our needs and probably THEN some, depending on how much of our own free time we want to put into making them nice.
This is where you're wrong. Most of these commodities do not come from corporations, they come from the working class who is hired as a wage slave to corporations. They create the product, not the "corporation," and if you understand that then you should understand that it will work exactly the same in a communist society, except it won't be a separate "class." The same people who make these commodoties now can make them under communism.
The new product is all working class labor. Companies hire engineers who design the product, usually outsource to another company for that products raw materials or components, then they hire other workers to build it. The only person who gets rich off this is the person in control of this charade, which tend to be "high up" executives who don't do an ounce of this labor.
The return value for work in a communist society is more than personal satisfaction, it is knowing that because of what you have done the entire world is benefiting. We produce because we need... it is that simple, but we can produce a hell of a lot better things when we work together, because it's easier when we break down the skills and all contribute what we can. This way here we don't all have to be a jack of all trades. Our food can come from those who know how to produce it well, houses from those who build them well, and so on and so on. What you contribute is then based on what you enjoy doing the most. If you enjoy helping people who are sick you become a doctor, if you like building things or coming up with ideas for things to build you might become a carpenter or an engineer, if you would much rather teach people and make a difference in a younger persons life you become a teacher... etc...etc. The labor that is "unwanted" can be handled in two ways. First off, production that is unwanted can either be machine driven or simply destroyed. If it is that useless of a product I would assume it would just be destroyed. But it's not as if machines cannot be used to build the majority of modern day goods. Other things can be broken up amongst everyone in society. That is, we may all have to chip in for this kind of work, but because we're all chipping in we'd only have to do very little of it. like maybe an hour a month or something. This is something we would all understand that we do so that we can all benefit from it or because it simply NEEDS to be done.
As for your statement that we "can't forget that we're human"... I'm not sure what you're implying by this. I don't forget that we're human, but knowing that I'm human makes me know that unlike othe animals I have a very unique combination of compassion and reason, and from this I'm able to aim for such ideals and if they were eve achieved, uphold them.
