Comment by friedman23 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by friedman23 | Hacker News Reader

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> The fact that you're telling me to move to Venezuela (capitalist economy) or North Korea (a country that doesn't even call itself Communist or even Socialist any more)

sure, keep telling yourself that

> Yes. What about it?

Thank you for admitting that communism does require force confiscation of property.

You need to understand that I wasn't arguing to convince you, I'm making statements to point out for anyone reading that when you say "liberation" you actually mean state police going door by door and confiscating any valuables you have. Maybe lynching some property owners along the way.

>People's economic freedom is not removed, rather, it is provided in the first place - higher stage Communism is the refined ideal of the free association of people as producers and labourers in the economic sphere.

Communism is supposed to be ownership of the means of production by the people. Can you sell what you supposedly own under communism? No, you cannot.

This means that

A. You don't actually own it the state does. (The state in this case can be whatever organizational body is being used to manage the means of production).

B. You do not have any economic freedom under communism because you cannot sell what you supposedly own. Even under communism you do not have the option to sell your own labor freely. What occurs is that you are assigned work that the government believes is needed.

>you actually mean state police going door by door and confiscating any valuables you have. Maybe lynching some property owners along the way.

You misunderstand the concept of property. I have written about it here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15160835 as an explanation.

>A. You don't actually own it the state does.

No; Communism is an anarchist ideology, and the workers through voluntary democratic institutions manage the means of production - so you, by extension manage the means of production.

>You do not have any economic freedom under communism because you cannot sell what you supposedly own.

No. These is no sale in Communism because the conceptions of freedom have changed, society adopts a different set of needs, namely, goods are not imbued with exchange value, as they are not commodities. It doesn't make sense to sell things in Communism. This is what Communism is - the bringing about of the condititions such that the current ones are obsolete. As Marx said, Communism is not an ideal to be achieved, but the constantly existing movement which abolishes the present state of things.

>Even under communism you do not have the option to sell your own labor freely.

This is a very good thing! You don't have to sell your labour to survive! And even if you wanted to, you can get higher returns by owning any more labour you do.

>What occurs is that you are assigned work that the government believes that you are most suited to.

Hilariously false. Please actually read Marx; I'll quote the relevant part here:

"He is a hunter, a fisherman, a herdsman, or a critical critic, and must remain so if he does not want to lose his means of livelihood; while in communist society, where nobody has one exclusive sphere of activity but each can become accomplished in any branch he wishes, society regulates the general production and thus makes it possible for me to do one thing today and another tomorrow, to hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, rear cattle in the evening, criticise after dinner, just as I have a mind, without ever becoming hunter, fisherman, herdsman or critic. This fixation of social activity, this consolidation of what we ourselves produce into an objective power above us, growing out of our control, thwarting our expectations, bringing to naught our calculations, is one of the chief factors in historical development up till now."

> No. These is no sale in Communism because the conceptions of freedom have changed

Oh yeah, the conception of freedom has changed so that slavery is freedom. It's amazing that there are people that actually fantasize about living under a dystopian government.

> Hilariously false. Please actually read Marx; I'll quote the relevant part here:

Marx says a lot of stuff in his worthless books, every implementation of communism has assigned labor.

>Oh yeah, the conception of freedom has changed so that slavery is freedom.

No; if anything, capitalism is the closest to slavery if we consider the case of the slave abolishing the ownership of slaves (the human component) of private property, the proletarian is the same in that he must actually abolish private property in general to be free.

>every implementation of communism has assigned labor.

Does capitalism not have assigned labour? You are free to move between jobs to some degree, but you are assigned labour in general, for without that assignment (by the capitalists) then you are liable to destitution or poverty or death or the charity of the State.

> Does capitalism not have assigned labour? You are free to move between jobs to some degree, but you are assigned labour in general, for without that assignment (by the capitalists)

Yes it does, and if you can't find a company that will let you do the job you want you can start your own business.

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