Flapjacks
Well-known member
Some day when everyone is altruistic, it will work fabulously.
If everyone was altruistic, any currently popular economic system would work better.
Some day when everyone is altruistic, it will work fabulously.
Marxists? Where?
Don't start getting people deported, Jesse.
Actually if you look back you'll see that nobody on this thread is claiming to be "a Marxist." Iglooskies says he agrees with Marxian economics but is too much of a mystic to commit to Marx's materialism. I said I teach it, and find worth in students learning it.
Neither of those say "Marxist" any more than having a Facebook page makes you essentially a "Zuckerbergian."
That might not be the best analogy. Better analogies would be to other philosophers. But I just went for the pop culture reference...
Personally, as a very unusual someone who believes in reincarnation, I hope humanity never reaches a state of "altruism" which will render communism effective. In order for everyone to be perfectly equal, there must be no progress left to be made, no change, no problems to fix, nothing for people to have differing opinions on, no variations in personality. Just an endless, empty state of limbo, technologically and politically. Any changes or variations would upset the equilibrium required to keep such an institution in place.
Agreed!Communism is a kind of government that the human race is not yet ready for. At the current ethical and moral stage for most of humanity, it simply turns into another kind of totalitarian society.
Some day when everyone is altruistic, it will work fabulously.
Agreed!f everyone was altruistic, any currently popular economic system would work better.
If everyone was altruistic, any currently popular economic system would work better.
By the way, the best chance of Mrxian communism, I think, is robots. If we flooded the world with robots and eradicated human labour because robots were doing it all, that would revolutionize how we live, including maybe creating a classless society...?!
Zarathu said:That wasn't the point. Communism requires an enlighten populace that is not about their own competitiveness, but wants only to serve others. The other systems don't require this to work. Communism won't work at all unless this pre-requisite exists.
Currently, "capitalism" in the US doesn't foster competition at all, but supports monopolies and centralization, which is another great setup for a totalitarian state.
Rod, where can I learn more about the differences you're discussing?
I don't want to change the subject permanently, but I noticed that there are a couple Marxists on the thread. I would like to know why exactly you are interested in communist philosophy. If you guys want, I could start a separate thread in general chat.
Here in the US, we have this nifty thingie called "the Sherman Anti-Trust Act." It's this fancy little bit of democratic legislation made it illegal for companies to form a monopoly on a product or service, and also made agreements "in restraint of trade" illegal. We've had it since 1890, so it's kinda wierd you haven't heard of it by now.
What does support monopolies and centralization is corporate welfare and special-interest legislation. Both of which the Libertarian party opposes...