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  1. I mean, communism in principle is just "I think people should earn the amount they work for" right? I get that in practice it's kind of bad but to call someone like Sanders or Corbyn a communist just seems to be really reductive to me. That's not even including the fact that it's not like a Sanders presidency (RIP) would automatically make America communistic; up to a certain point is it not just the belief that working for an equivalent amount of money is a neat idea? I dunno, this is way beyond my element

    Sunday, 28-Aug-16 12:26:28 UTC from web
    1. @tiffany The idea of communism is not "people earn the ammount they work for", it's more like "the total sum of earnings of all workers are pooled and then distributed"

      Sunday, 28-Aug-16 12:27:44 UTC from web
      1. @nerthos oh, okay, that's a lot weirder

        Sunday, 28-Aug-16 12:30:01 UTC from web
        1. @tiffany "earn what you work for" is a somewhat light social capitalism.

          Sunday, 28-Aug-16 12:36:02 UTC from web
          1. @nerthos Good to know. I probably trailed off too much in that post; obviously I'm not trying to defend the kinds of capitalism you brought up (and I couldn't if I wanted to because I know next to nothing about the topic)

            Sunday, 28-Aug-16 12:42:55 UTC from web
            1. @tiffany Honestly capitalism is good in moderation. You just need a little drop of socialism in there to prevent the biggest capital holders from mining the field so no one else can climb. As long as the state ensures equal grounds for earning capital, then yes, people will earn what they work and think for. If you don't regulate it at all though you can be sure it'll quickly become a plantation-like economy where most of the population will basically work for food and housing tokens they have to spend in the stores owned by their own boss.

              Sunday, 28-Aug-16 12:46:16 UTC from web
              1. @nerthos oops I meant communism there lol

                Sunday, 28-Aug-16 12:46:40 UTC from web
      2. @nerthos @tiffany The issue with it is that it completely destroys any enterprising spirit, and punishes people who worked really hard to get out of physical labour. In a normal system, you ideally put your physical work as your basic commodity to earn enough to be able to start your own bussiness and hire people to work for you, buy land and live off the rent, or invest on someone else's bussiness so you can live more comfortably by the time you're older and labour takes a toll on you. Communism removes that as an option, trying to focus on a production oriented economy which burns out quickly, and forces you to work until you can't anymore. A basic degree of socialism is needed to keep a country working properly, with common resources pooled towards infrastructure and social security for people who suffer accidents or natural disasters. Yet too much means your country will become an industrial powerhouse for a short while until the economy is saturated and everyone becomes poor.

        Sunday, 28-Aug-16 12:34:13 UTC from web
        1. @nerthos @tiffany Or instead of an industrial nation, it'll become a nation wide communal farm, where no one starves but also no one has a decent life, or a third case where everyone depends on the state until the state goes bankrupt and everyone ends up poor again.

          Sunday, 28-Aug-16 12:35:14 UTC from web
    2. @tiffany still in the west Communist is an easy pejorative towards those involved in politic. Little is understood about those who came to communism (nations) had to suffer a lot before going down that road. A lot of buil-up. A revolt. A war. A massive purge. Not simply an election.

      Sunday, 28-Aug-16 12:28:52 UTC from web
      1. @awl I guess in fairness it's easy to say "that will NEVER happen again!" when you're not quite there yet but are on the path

        Sunday, 28-Aug-16 12:34:17 UTC from web
        1. @tiffany i think the west has grown more entropic over the last century but who knows what will really shake things up.

          Sunday, 28-Aug-16 12:36:53 UTC from web