| View Blog
|
|
|
|
What you alone produce cannot also be what is collectively produced.
If we can manage to protect private property rights in a capitalist arrangement, then
surely we can protect human rights in a democratic arrangement.
Since no rational person will want more or less than they need, then supplying the
needs of each individual within an association or collective will be the most rational
principle basis of an agreement to live and work together. Some will need more than
others; some will need less than others. A fundamental economy does not allocate
goods such that there is an income segregation, with some being rich while others
are poor. The rich are those who get more than they truly need; and the poor are those
who get less than they really need. If people agree to come together, to live together,
and to work together, it will not be so that some are made rich, while others are made
poor.
Freedom is an accomplishment.
Communism, as I understand communism, is not about (re-)distributing to others
what you have produced by your own individual labors.
Changing the conditions changes one's options.
There is no right to impose the communist formula -- "From each according to ability;
to each according to need" -- on any person, or on any group. The communist formula
is a proposition, a suggestion, a recommendation. People are free to choose to live
together by this proposal, or to reject this proposal. Every philosophical communist is
freely and fully dedicated to this moral proposition. The idea is a project to change the
world. There will be some challenges, but there must be no coercive use of force
against peaceful and democratic dissent.
What life demands, freedom also demands.
If capitalism is a division of labor scheme, then all productive labor can be understood
as the socialized labors of all workers-producers for the welfare of all people-consumers.
We are all working together, producing goods, and providing services for the benefit of
all people.
We cannot allow what is to always be the successful and victorious enemy of what
should be, just as we cannot let the perfect become the eternal enemy of the good.
How hard one works, in really-existing capitalism, has no objectively observed effect
on how much one earns by actual productive work. There are some individuals who
directly profit from the fruit of other people's labors. If profiting from the labor of others
is not right, fair, just, or good now, then it will not be right, etc. in the future. Socialism
is not about passing injustice and inequity on to the future; socialism is about stopping
every injustice, every inequity.
In capitalism, property generates an income, just as wage labor generates a wage
income. How much capital property one privately owns has an effect on how much
income from property one can acquire. The more income you can acquire from property,
the less income you will need to earn from doing actual labor.
Liberty is both our heritage, and our hope.
|
|
Posted by rallen2 on 2008-02-23 21:28:37 | Rating: | Views: 37
|
|
| |
|
|
Email This to a Friend 
