this post was submitted on 26 Jun 2023
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the point is not to exploit others labor by expropriation of the means of production, no one cares what you do with your own labor
Yes I think the point is the entirely missed by others.
This all just sounds like a free market, or anarcho capitalism, or really just anarchy. Horseshoe theory, and all that...
On communism, the means of production are not for sale. The results of your work through the means of production are yours, and the means itself belongs to the community.
What if a person creates a new type of clothing that has high demand because it's better than what exists before?
What if that person starts getting interest from other people who want the clothes and they try to trade currency (I'm not sure if in your communist system this exists, so consider other items people have or something) and then transactions start to happen?
What if the person gets so busy, he gets another person to help him with the trades in exchange for a fixed amount?
In which of these steps does it turn from "no one cares what you do with your own labor" to "give us your business or else"?
What if the person gets so busy, he gets another person to help him with the trades in exchange for a fixed amount?
If a person A, who already started a business, hires someone (Person B)to work for a fixed amount, than it is has to be only a share of what that person contributes. Otherwise, if the fixed amount is equal to contributing value of the person B, Person A would not gain anything and would not hire him in the first place. Ergo, from the value the worker, Person B, creates, Person A will take some funds for the development and maintenance of the production (material, rent, taxes etc.), and will keep a portion for himself. At that point, that is exploitation, because the Person B gets only a fraction of what he had earned due to the Person A.
Communists are a huge and diverse ideological group, therefore there are at least two different camps to this. Either you nationalize everything and run the economy from the planned position, therefore (through proxy), turning all companies into public property, or the other (my) camp, in which every worker who works at a business is, after a trial time, given the exactly same share as all other workers and has voting right in how the company is managed. Part of his pay still go for the maintenance and growth, but most goes to him as the owner of his own labor.
You missed the third camp. Anarcho-communists would hate both of these solutions.
Hate is a strong word. Also, I am very close to the anarchist line and have written down basicly exacly what happened in Rojava, Catalonia and other anarchist project. What do you think I got wrong?
Nationalizing the economy goes against anarchist ideals due to nationalizing means giving it to the government (entirely contrary to anarchist thought). The second one, even after the "trial period", has ended is still taking the fruits of your labor. Under anarchism, there are no companies. They are free associations of workers. The workers who work the capital own the capital. And there isn't money, that's contrary to communism and no matter how you split it money is unegalitarian. A worker keeps what he wants from his labor, and communalizes the rest. And is thus entitled to what he needs from the community.
Edit: Rojava is also not an anarchist project. At best it's a libertarian socialist project. And I've never heard of this "trial period" stuff in anything I've ever read about and anarchist example
I focused on actual attempts, not ideal solutions. Those who implement state capitalism also claim they want a classless, moneless society, yet never get there. Anarchists never got to what you are describing eather.