Communism?

[Music Dragon]

Originally Posted by BCM

I wanna know why anticommunists never think about how if you don't work and take advantage of society, society will stop supporting you. Stop giving to the community and the community stops giving to you, etc. That stops this problem.

So basically, if you work hard, you are rewarded, but if you don't, you get nothing.

Sounds an awful lot like -

[BCM]

Well, many communists think people should still be given shelter, healthcare, education, food, necessities etc, etc, basically the things that aren't a problem to get, non-scarce things, I guess I'd say. And some communists are in favor of labour vouchers.
And the reason many people don't work hard isn't usually just "they're lazy pigs", it goes deeper than that, I'm fairly sure you'd know what I mean. These problems (like poverty) would be fixed, rather than just "fuck it, let them starve"; this isn't the mentality I'm suggesting.

[Ruby]

I have to say I find that, if anything, the further socialism retreats from pure equality, the more practical problems it faces. Economically, things get complicated. The bureaucracy thickens and becomes harder to administer. Nevermind that half the moral arguments for socialism break down.

Originally Posted by Music Dragon

So basically, if you work hard, you are rewarded, but if you don't, you get nothing.

Sounds an awful lot like -

Don't even entertain the idea that capitalism is meritocratic.

[Music Dragon]

I'm not saying it is, but I thought we were talking best-case scenarios here.

[Ruby]

Even in the best-case scenario, whatever that is, capitalism is still in essence just a nervous system for carrying information about supply and demand. It is amoral and has no notion of "merit" or "effort" except inasmuch as they are reflected in the price of a good. The idea that capitalism can be meritocratic, or that meritocracy is possible at all, has always been a downright mistake. There is not even any way of gauging merit, let alone building a society around it.

[Music Dragon]

Fair enough.