This may be an overzealous blog post for a personal finance website, but I have been thinking about this for a little bit. I even tried to write a research paper on this when I was in college (awww so many years ago), but I was denied by my professor. Well now I am older and can do what I want with my own blog! I have discussed my free market & political ideology in the past (click on the categories to the right and start reading!).
It can be argued that modern Communism’s father is Karl Marx. Marx and his partner Engels wrote the Communist Manifesto in 1848 (yes, 80 years before Lenin ran with it in Russia). It is a relatively short book…really more of a pamphlet.
10 Conditions for Transition to Communism
1. Abolition of Property in land and application of all rents of land to public purposes.
2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax
3. Abolition of all right of inheritance.
4. Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels.
5. Centralization of credit in the hands of the State by means of a national bank with State capital and an exclusive monopoly.
6. Centralization of the means of communication and transport in the hands of the state.
7. Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the state; the bringing into cultivation of waste-lands, and the improvement of the soil generally in accordance with a common plan.
8. Equal liability of all labor. Establishment of industrial armies, especially for agriculture.
9. Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual abolition of distinction between town and country, by a more equal distribution of population over the country.
10. Free education for all children in public schools. Abolition of children’s factory labor in its present form. Combination of education with industrial production.
Well alright lets go one by one.
1) Ever hear of the Supreme Court Case where the government legally (not morally) took land from private home owners to literally give it to developers? Yeah that should make your blood boil. Want more info – Kelo v. City of New London.
2) Our incomes taxes aren’t as bad as they were before 1981, but I think its NUTS we tax our top producers 35%. Plus this is going to get worse.
3) Well, we still have inheritances, but as I have discussed the richest get hit at 45% tax over $3.5million.
4) See #1 – you disagree with how the land is going to be used it is taken.
5) Seriously? Can anyone say Citigroup
6) ummmm? Can anyone say GM
7) This one may be dated, but I will say its similar to #6 with the State owning the means of production
8) Again, this may be dated but the UAW now owns a piece of a GM!
9) I can happily argue that the founding fathers would never had imagined a federal government the size of ours in comparison to the local governments.
10) This one I am happy to see.
Am I crazy? I am paranoid? Please chime in.
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For the most part, you seem to be correct. Modern governments have been getting bigger and bigger ever since the end of WWII, although they are not necessarly moving towards Soviet- or Mao-style Communism.
the concentration camps are absent only
Wow, that is a huge step from where I was going. But we did have internment camps during WWII
Hunh, interesting list. I actually read the Communist Manifesto (intellectual curiousity, not a sudden desire to revive the Soviet Union) a long time ago, but I don’t recall these ten conditions. Here’s my (admittedly belated) take on them all:
1. While that case (and more than a few uses of eminent domain that I’ve heard about) seem to show how the government can abuse its power to decide cases about the use of private property, I’m not sure it’s an example of impending communism. In that case, property was transferred from one private owner to another; hardly the abolition of private property we’d see with a communist society.
2. Not sure 35% at the highest margin is that horrible (especially given the number of credits and other work-arounds that are available), but I do agree that things are only likely to get worse. It’s higher taxes, much reduced government spending, extraordinary inflation or some combination of the three if we hope to cut down the deficit.
3. I’ll be honest, I have a hard time being too concerned about an estate tax that has a $3.5 million exemption. Again, a long way from ‘no more inheritance, period’.
4. Again, eminent domain raises my hackles, but it’s a long way from confiscating all the property of those who oppose the state. When some Tea Party activist homes get seized for ‘the greater good’ (or the same happens to liberals under a conservative regime), that would be the time to worry in my book.
5. We’re still a long way from only getting loans via the government; most of the troubled banks have paid back their loans, and it’s back to fully private ownership. Maybe next crisis we won’t be so lucky, but for now, I think we’re good.
6. The day that GM (whether government owned or not) is the only source of transportation is the day we’re in serious trouble, regardless of whether the Communists are in charge or not.
7. Less flippantly, the government is hardly in control of all means of production; there’s still plenty of privately owned companies, a fact that’s unlikely to change any time soon. (Although, that part about wastelands could be Superfund sites in disguise)
8. I’m not 100% on what ‘equal liability of labor’ means, so I’ll take your word that union ownership of GM fits the bill. I’ve yet to see an ‘industrial army’ though.
9. I’m not sure what the relative size of the federal government compared to state and local governments has to do with an abolition of the difference between town and country. I’d say that suburban sprawl meets the definition, though.
10. I’m glad that you, me, and the Communists can all agree on this one; free education seems like a strong requirement for an educated society.
Roger, the Amateur Financier´s last blog ..What Classic Sci Fi Can Teach Us About The Future
Thanks for putting your view on each one. I don’t think we are there yet, but I hope you can at least see that we are moving closer and closer to it. I should specify I am not for free college education, just HS.
I also don’t think it matters who the gov’t gives the property to, the fact that they TOOK IT, and reallocated it IS SCARY!
You’re quite welcome; I like to have philosophical conversations of this sort, although too often (particularly online) they devolve into people screaming pointless jargon at each other. As I said on my blog, though, I think if we are getting closer to government and corporations combining into one all controlling entity (which I think is possible, perhaps even likely), it’s more likely that it will be a corporate controlled government, rather than a government controlled economy. How different each would be in practice, I can’t say for certain. (One reason for bringing up the distinction with regards to eminent domain is because I do think they are at least a little different; although, it could just be a matter of which group of all controlling oligarchs is in power.)
Roger, the Amateur Financier´s last blog ..What Classic Sci Fi Can Teach Us About The Future
The fact that the government has deemed it legal to take land from one private individual and give it to another means that we have lost ownership in principle. The government, when it wants, will take it. We’re not there yet, but we will be.
Re: free education.
I think free education is a great thing…. as long as the government is not involved. If the government pays for it, it is a government school. That school will teach what is in the government’s best interest which is not freedom or personal property rights etc.
It has become plain to see that the schools will teach what the government wants them to teach regardless of the parents’ wishes. They won’t even let the parents opt their children out material they find objectionable.
The government believes it owns our kids. The parents are just legal caretakers.
We’re not there yet, but there are enough laws on the books that no one can live without breaking a law. When you do something the government does not like, they will find the laws you have broken and take you out of circulation.