The Communist Utopia

Awesome!  I love it when people tell me what to do.  Especially when it's for my own good.

First they came for the donuts, and I did nothing...

Then they hauled Boxer away to turn him into glue...

We should all strive to be like Boxer!  Must work harder.

The shutdown of the USGOV proves my point. Here we had Mr. Boner and Mr. Alabama both trying to be the alpha male. Billions of dollars were lost and the world was shown how disfunctional the capitalist dystopia  really is. This also puts to the question whether or not Obamacare is any good since what will happen if you are in need of emergency medical care and the  government shuts down again? 

Boxer should have wized up.  He should have listened more closely to Benjamin.

If I gotta' pick one of the characters in that book to emulate I'll have to go with the ass.

Rather fitting.

Communism developed as a reaction to the abuses of the early idustrial revolution. Unfortunately, abuses still exist. No system on earth is perfect, but I think Capitalism is superior to Communism for a few simple reasons.

Competition breeds innovation and efficiency. We need more competition and less of a monopolistic or even Fascist model for our economy in the US. That being said, a planned economy does not provide incentives for productivity or innovation.

The availability and free flow of capital is essential for start up businesses and for business expansion. Capitalist economies are best at this.

Finally, I think Communism fails to understand the true motivation for people to work. People aren't motivated by the prospect of living in an egalatarian utopia. They work to live in a nicer house or to save money to send their kids to school. Ambition is not greed and should be encouraged. People should be allowed to distinguish themselves and excel as a result of the quality of work they do.

I had a discussion with a guy in the maintenance dept. of a factory where I used to work. He argued that everyone in a company shouls be paid the same amount of money. I disagreed because everyone does not contribute equally. I asked him where the incentive to work harder or come up with new ways of doing things would come from if everyone were paid the same regardless of performance. He didn't have an answer.

I don't know if money is an incentive to work harder or to be creative, for many people? I don't know if a monetary reward for hard work or creativity is necessary?

Edited to add: Perhaps if people are taught the ideal of a greater good when they are young then the reward for hard work and creativity would be communal appreciation?

There is no Left remaining in America, even Alan Blinder can tell you that.

As much as I like electricity, I gotta' agree with trysts on this one.  I do so much unpaid work it isn't even funny.

Why do I do it?  Because it needs to get done.

True. Some of the highest paid people where I work do not work nearly as hard as those who don't make as much money. Also, of those who do make pretty much equivalent money some of them just work harder "because it just needs to get done".

Um... Obama? Hillary Clinton? Al Sharpton? Eric Holder? If there really was no left then those people wouldn't exist, and America would be so much better off.

Turn the radio off, dude.

Ain't gonna work. I would rather be lazy and not receive "communal appreciation" but get paid the exact same amount of money than some other guy who works his ass off and gets communal appreciation.

Also, even a lot of the Communists posting here don't seem to agree with the idea of the "greater good." Because if you did then you wouldn't be complaning about being paid too little, since you're doing your job for the "greater good," so why should you care how much you benefit from it as an individual?

Obviously, there are bad companies, I'll grant you that. Nor do I know the circumstances of the work you do without pay, which shouldn't happen. But gratitude could be considered a form of currency. Maybe you keep your job during lean times when others are let go. Maybe you get more hours than the slackers.

If you have a skill, you can (usually) sell that ability to another company where you will be compensated better. I have done that more than once. I feel like a fraud saying that since I'm on medical leave atm, but hey, full disclosure.

Sharon, we should teach our kids to be more aware of ways to improve our communities, but that's not always practical in your work life.

Modern corporate America has the same problem as communism. In our modern world salaries are set either by the minimum wage law, the union contract or the pay scale set forth by the corporation itself. If one is innovative in a modern corporation he is liable to get fired because his bosses are set in their ways and want to do things the way they have always done things and new ideas frighten them lest the ideas make things so efficient that they are no longer needed and lose their cushy jobs and nice pension. And it is very difficult for someone to set up his own business based on innovative ideas since renting offices or a store and manufacturing facility is very expensive and venture capital is hard to come by.  

I've heard this attitude expressed many times among the more ignorant members of our work force. Frankly, it's one reason all our jobs are going to China and India.

And it's also the reason why Communism isn't gonna work. Yes, that kind of attitude isn't "correct" in a sense, but the reality is, you can't change it.

True, there are going to be people who want a monetary incentive for harder work. I work with people like that now. But since there are people who work hard already, more so than their co-workers, then they may find it rewarding to have communal appreciation. Many people place a high value on appreciation from others. It is like an unexpected present.

It seems like appreciation is of such high value that many of us desire it in life, and really is the reason for working at all--to get money to survive in order to experience things like appreciation from others in life.

I'm not complaining about being paid too little, I totally make enough to be poor. For us poor, we just want the prices on things to go down But I'm also not a communist, since I don't really know what that is--I haven't read Lenin, I haven't read enough about it to know?