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[Max™]

You're still participating in capitalist society under the delusion that it is superior to post-capitalist communism.

Like I said, communism is what happens after society advances enough that capitalism can't work anymore.

Well, it's what happens if we don't off ourselves clinging to free market bullshit.


Incidentally all scarcity nowadays is forced with the one exception of land, so hey, congratulations on being ahead of the curve there!

The idea that we'd all have to suffer and live in poverty without capitalism is one pushed by the insane american strain of capitalism because we're very good at deflecting our flaws onto everyone else.

[Maximum Spin]

You're still participating in capitalist society under the delusion that it is superior to post-capitalist communism.

Owning my stuff is definitely better for me than someone else getting part of it.

[Max™]

That isn't what communism is about, though.

I mean, no longer being able to collect rent because you called dibs on a chunk of land might seem like it would suck, but not needing to collect rent because you're no longer struggling under artificial scarcity seems better to me.

[Maximum Spin]

I mean, no longer being able to collect rent because you called dibs on a chunk of land might seem like it would suck, but not needing to collect rent because you're no longer struggling under artificial scarcity seems better to me.

I'm super not, though. My life is plentiful and I am content.

[ZBridges]

Trust me, you'd feel better if you gave all your stuff away.  If it would help, you could send all your money to me.  I wouldn't mind.

[Maximum Spin]

Trust me, you'd feel better if you gave all your stuff away.  If it would help, you could send all your money to me.  I wouldn't mind.

Nah.

[scriver]

Communism still values people according to their contribution to the community, though.

It quite literally doesn't, though? The most boiled down understanding of communism is "From each according to their ability, to each according to their needs." You seem to be having some trouble with that second part.

I most certainly does. The very quote you give creates a relationship in which the one who provides more to the system than he requires back is more valuable then the one who requires more than he is able to provide.

As somebody who strongly believes is that quote yet have definitely been given more in my life than I've been able to give that is a burden of guilt I am intimately familiar with.

[Maximum Spin]

As somebody who strongly believes is that quote yet have definitely been given more in my life than I've been able to give that is a burden of guilt I am intimately familiar with.

Honestly, this is one of the infinity reasons why voluntary association is morally superior: People give you things because they want to, not because they are required to. If someone who has something wants to give it to you, then, by definition, you deserve it. You do not need to pay that back to balance the books; the books are already balanced by whatever made those people want to do that in the first place, such as "familial love" or whatever may apply in your situation.
"From each according to their willingness, to each according to their deserts."

[Naturegirl1999]

Why deserts?

[Maximum Spin]

Why deserts?

Pronounced the same way as "desserts", it's the noun form of "deserve" — either something deserved (as in "just deserts") or, as here, the state of deserving something.

[Naturegirl1999]

Why deserts?

Pronounced the same way as "desserts", it's the noun form of "deserve" — either something deserved (as in "just deserts") or, as here, the state of deserving something.

Oh. Thank you. I got confused on how places with scarce precipitation related to willingness. Thank you for clarifying why it makes sense, a different sounding word spelled the same with a different meaning

[Max™]

Where is the "taken forcefully from each to redistribute until all are equal in poverty" bit in Marx's writings again? I seem to have missed it while I was waiting on my just desserts.

[NJW2000]

If someone who has something wants to give it to you, then, by definition, you deserve it.

Just... no. Who on earth thinks this? There is pretty much no understanding of desert I can think of in which someone wanting to give you something of theirs means you deserve it. Unless you believe or bullshit like Rand.

Dictators give their friends and lovers things those people definitely don't deserve all the time. The European nobility frequently gave their children money and lands that were the profits of slavery - or indeed actual slaves. And idiotic rich kids are frequently given far more than they will ever deserve to have in their lives by their parents as rewards for medioce exam grades, or for nothing at all.

I really don't see how someone could come to believe that you deserve anything you're given. Let alone that it's true by definition - this really isn't in the definition of deserve, or a necessary consequence of it. I'm a bit horrified that someone could think this, to be honest.

[scriver]

As somebody who strongly believes is that quote yet have definitely been given more in my life than I've been able to give that is a burden of guilt I am intimately familiar with.

Honestly, this is one of the infinity reasons why voluntary association is morally superior: People give you things because they want to, not because they are required to. If someone who has something wants to give it to you, then, by definition, you deserve it. You do not need to pay that back to balance the books; the books are already balanced by whatever made those people want to do that in the first place, such as "familial love" or whatever may apply in your situation.
"From each according to their willingness, to each according to their deserts."

I wholeheartedly disagree. Not just that it's morally inferior (It is our moral duty to care for each other a a group to begin with) but also that it isn't willing. It is we who voted for this system after all.

[Doomblade187]

Y'all, you know that Malthus was wrong, right? I keep seeing people say "but what about scarcity?".