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The Fantasy of Socialism
Apparently, this is not a parody account.
With genuine socialism, you would be doing work that you actually enjoy and want to do. All work will be voluntary. No one would be made to do anything they don’t want to do. That is what happens under capitalism.
So, under socialism, only foot fetishists will work in shoe stores, bedpans will be emptied by coprophiliacs, and potatoes will be dug by… poor people overseen by armed men because nobody in the real world is going to do it just for the gratification of feeding smug populations of urban elites who have nothing but contempt for the people that supply their food.
Until someone invents replicators so we can have Luxury Authoritarian Space Communism a la Star Trek, this scheme of “everybody works for the common good and does whatever they want” isn’t going to work. And even in the Trek universe, there is still scarcity. If everyone is living in a high-rise condo, who gets the top floor with the view? Does everybody who wants one get a ranch in Montana, or is that reserved for Star Fleet Admirals and other elites? Who has to be on a low floor next to the turbolift? I imagine there would have to be an entire bureaucracy of people making those allocations; people who were really passionate about telling other people where they get to live and suchlike.
The really sad part is, a lot of “young skulls full of mush” are being taught that Socialism really is just “free stuff from the government that lets you do whatever you want.”
Published in General
Maybe Star Trek should have been called Keeping Up With the Cardassians.
These people got to travel to the most interesting places around the Galaxy for free. You don’t think someone would bus tables to do that? Consider that there is plenty of dialogue on the show to suggest that privately arranging space travel is complicated and expensive.
Mark Twain is a communist now?
Mark Twain wrote a lot about slavery. Is being opposed to slavery the same as being a communist? Is Abraham Lincoln a communist? John Brown? Harriet Tubman?
As much as I hate it, communism isn’t the only form of oppression that ever existed. Arguments can be made that it is not the worst form of oppression that ever existed. Talking about other problems in the world does not equate to supporting communism.
And therein lies the problem. People hear Marx’s soundbite “From each according to their abilities. To each according to their needs.” And think that their abilities will put them in a choice position. Everybody thinks the same thing….Clearly I’ll be the quarterback/prima ballerina/goalie/astronaut/artist. You’ll be digging potatoes. And as someone of substance, I need a big apartment and nice gym and quality food. Your needs are simpler. A soulless sunless apartment block and potato soup for you.
Nobody stops to think who gets to decide what your abilities are. And worse, who determines what your needs are.
The reason socialism looks attractive now is because discretionary central banking quit “working” after was NAFTA was passed, China opened up, robots took over so much labor, etc. Voting and “democracy” just makes it worse. The whole West is going to learn this the hard way.
I think a big problem is that too many people think their unique ability is to be the person who decides what everyone’s abilities and needs are. We call them Democrats.
That is exactly how they think. Drive the coal mines out of business overnight and then force them to learn coding, judge them for taking opioids and cooking meth etc. GOSPLAN is a proven bad idea. Someone tell the Democrat party.
Funny how so many people who believe in past lives were Cleopatra.
That’s something I noticed many years ago. Everyone used to be a Duke or a Countess. No one ever says, “In a past life I was a peasant. The life before that I was a peasant. The life before that I died at the age of 2 days. The life before that I was a poor fisherman. The life before that I died at age 3. The life before that I was a slave.”
Socialism? Hah! I sneer at socialism. What the masses want is Richardism. Give me all you produce and give me power over the world and I’ll create the great Richardist society for you. Work will no longer be necessary. Goods will fall from the skies and the seas will turn to lemonade. Bushes will bring forth iPhones and iPads will grow on trees. Cars will spring up like weeds and weeds will turn into wild flowers. Storks will deliver gourmet meals to your doors. Trash and extraneous CO2 will disappear into the 5th dimension. Disease will be replaced by ease and old age by ageless youth.
[If you’re going to fantasize, might as well do it right.]
Under socialism the state has ten pounds of beef. The bureaucrat promises fifteen people that they can each have a pound. When the state runs out of beef, the bureaucrat has the rancher executed because his cows are too small.
Let’s see. In a society in which goods are taken from people in proportion to their ability and given to others in proportion to their needs, what incentives do people have?
The New Communist Man don’t need no stinkin’ Incentives !!! We have somehow reprogrammed 800,000 years of human nature so he voluntarily does these things.
Or, as JStanko uggested, the New Communist man voluntarily does these things at bayonet point. (AKs still come with bayonets?)
Would comrade prefer to pick potatoes or spend winter in Siberia? Is choice, all work is voluntary in worker’s paradise!
saw a comment on twitter to the effect of what does it say about the mindset of socialism if the impure version is prone to such abuse and tyranny and they still want to try to implement it
Your solution is called “a state”, not a country.
We have 50 “laboratories of democracy”, and some states are actively trying to achieve their visions of a socialist or communist Utopia, much to the detriment of the rest of the United Sates. Unfortunately, our United States have become a “The” instead of a “these”, thanks to the inappropriately named “Civil War”. Hey, I watched National Treasure 2, so I know!
But seriously, these socialist states can only enact their utopian vision at the expense of tax dollars from the rest of us. I say we cut these renegade states off from Federal funding. Let them secede if need be, so they can prove their system truly works. The risk with this strategy is they’ll reach out to Russia or China for support, and those two evil empires would gladly prop up a failing philosophy to gain a foothold in the lower 48.
However, I believe the true freedom-loving people from those states (Yo, Robinson! Yoo! Sowell!) would flee in droves, and the benefactors would abandon them as fast as Russia bailed out of Cuba.
OMG…this is a very nerdy thread.
Love you guys, but seriously?!?
You mean it took you this long to notice how nerdy we are???
Yeah, someone hasn’t been paying attention.
The short answer is “none.” It’s the major reason socialism doesn’t work.
I have the lug on mine. Never bought the bayonet, though.
Bah. Gate trumps Trek and Wars any day.
The incentives are to demonstrate minimum ability and maximum need.
‘Ahhhhhh my hair! What, have you, DONE, to my beautiful locks?!’ – JTK
http://shatnerstoupee.blogspot.com/