Communism does work as long as the commune is small enough so that the individual can see the results of their action or inaction. Maybe with the aid of computers and the internet, the size can be increased.
What I usually find in a commune is 10% workers, and 90% freeloaders. This always ends in collapse, usually with the workers getting disgusted and leaving.
An-cap fails at the other end. If society does not regulate the capitalism, then "anything for a buck" starts to become planet destroying
We can take the structure that is a big box store, manage it to replace what is taken from the shelf anywhere in the world, tell the accounting department (and irs agents) to get productive jobs, and flip this paradigm on any given Tuesday.
Yes, there will be bums, but we can minimize that with social programming.
We teach our girls not to reproduce the bums, and to mob those that excel, rather than rock stars and bad boys.
We carry the bums now along with the gov't structure that supports them.
If the bums could just go to the store and get what they need to survive another day we can take all those gov't workers, put them to productive work, and cut the overall cost of supporting bums exponentially.
Think how much less we would have to work if profit and taxes were removed from the equation.
Not that we would work less, there are planets to colonize, but the paradigm would be shifted.
Rather than giving the banksters another quadrillion dollars we could build retirement communities on the moon.
If you don't consume much, as documented on a blockchain, you could live much better, have more time to raise your children, and live a pretty comfy lifestyle.
Instead we have crapitalism with it's wars and raping of the planet.
You have a choice to make,...
The bums, those who don't work simply because they don't want to... I don't believe there are many people who wouldn't do something productive at least part of the time. There are some no doubt, but I think most people would grow disgusted if they were legitimately "leeching." At the very least most people would aim to better themselves in some way. Personally, I would work my ass of to colonize some planets.
Thank you, @erebus, I have been beating this drum for many years, it brings a smile to my face, and a spring to my step, to have you agree.
Folks work because that is the prime function of our lives, we are driven to survive while minimizing pain, and that means a/c, indoor plumbing, and the internet,.....
I hope you invite your friends to open their minds to alternatives to crapitalism,....
I have actually converted a few people, working on one of my friends right now that is socially left but still believes in the right wing "free market."
No, it wouldnt be a free market. It wouldnt be a market at all, since a market requires some sort of mutual agreement for exchange.
In the term free market, "free" doesnt mean "free or charge", it means that neither side of a transaction is forced or compelled to enter into that transaction against his will. (ie free in the sense of not enslaved or forced).
What youre describing is a system where you get to take whatever you want from someone who produces something, whether he wants to give it to you or not, and give him in return whatever your "moral standard" determines is appropriate.
That's called slavery.
The market isn't free if you are demanding that I give you something in return for your goods, if the market were that you give me goods and my own moral standard says I must reciprocate, that would be a free market.
If you take the time to read those books in my posts it will help with your database that you draw from.
I really didn't understand why the older anarchists wanted to smash crapitalism until I read the books.
I believe that the reason small communes worked best historically and even in some modern theoretical models is due in part to the reasons you listed, but also due in part to the scarcity myth that often forces competition where none needs exist. Of course as freebornangel mentioned and linked, the attacks on what otherwise could have been successful attempts are always a factor.
Before the advent of the big box stores distribution was toooo decentralized for this proposal to be adopted.
We would have had to reach millions of small business owners and convince them to take a chance.
Today we just co-opt a structure that is already there and cause it to serve the masses rather than the few oligarchs.
I wonder if the scarcity mindset has more to do with:
Whichever it is, it definitely has a hold on the people.
If we ever move from burning stuff for electricity to all forms of sustainable generation, what will that do to the scarcity mentality? Or is the scarcity mentality keeping the old electric company in place?