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I don't believe the Leninist notion of communism incorporated the idea of "not working for a living" either, but I could be wrong.

Koshkin 5y ago
This is simply a consequence of all goods being available to anyone free of charge.
- disintegore 5y ago
  Goods which, presumably, appear into existence through pure magic.
  - Koshkin 5y ago
    One of the tenets of the theory of the communist society is that most people would choose to work (a few hours a day).
huragok 5y ago
Small-c communism the theory and large-C Communism the Marxist-Leninist tendency.
mmcdermott 5y ago
The root difference between communism and capitalism comes down to their respective views of human nature. Communism views human as fundamentally decent but are made lower by the exploitation of those with capital and power. Capitalism, on the other hand, views human beings as lacking this decent base and presupposes that they will not produce things of mutual benefit without motivation. The critique of communism that people will not work for a living isn't so much based on the ideas in communism itself (which devoted a lot of propaganda to the noble farmer and mechanic) but on what the net result of the policy of equal distribution would cause. Someone who believes in capitalism necessarily believes that a communist system removes the incentive to work.
- disintegore 5y ago
  That would imply that the individual in question cannot imagine any incentive to work other than the profit motive, which in my eyes is not only an extremely depressing notion to contemplate, but also one that falls apart very rapidly if you consider that human society predates capitalism by thousands of years, and that even within capitalist society itself there are countless examples of the opposite.
  - mmcdermott 5y ago
    I don't think capitalism assumes profit to be the sole motivation for activity, just that it is the only one that works well for creating cooperation in the large. Almost anyone, regardless of belief system, practices or can conceive of hobbies that are done for the intrinsic enjoyment of the thing. Some hobbies produce goods or services (building models or playing music) but some may not (reading). What lies at the heart of any economic system is the division of labor as a multiplier of wealth. A hunter-gatherer requires neither communism nor capitalism to motivate if failure to hunt/gather results in starvation. An individual's motivation need not go farther than that. Once you start dividing labor, you also need a way to incentivize people to pick the right labor. Communism supposes that people will continue to pick valuable jobs (here defined as ones that generate goods and services for the collective) of their own accord. Capitalism says that profit & loss will sort out who is doing what is deemed beneficial by others. This, if true, does imply something about human nature and not necessarily something good. That doesn't make it more or less true.

Koshkin 5y ago

This is simply a consequence of all goods being available to anyone free of charge.

disintegore 5y ago
Goods which, presumably, appear into existence through pure magic.
- Koshkin 5y ago
  One of the tenets of the theory of the communist society is that most people would choose to work (a few hours a day).

huragok 5y ago

Small-c communism the theory and large-C Communism the Marxist-Leninist tendency.

mmcdermott 5y ago

The root difference between communism and capitalism comes down to their respective views of human nature. Communism views human as fundamentally decent but are made lower by the exploitation of those with capital and power. Capitalism, on the other hand, views human beings as lacking this decent base and presupposes that they will not produce things of mutual benefit without motivation. The critique of communism that people will not work for a living isn't so much based on the ideas in communism itself (which devoted a lot of propaganda to the noble farmer and mechanic) but on what the net result of the policy of equal distribution would cause. Someone who believes in capitalism necessarily believes that a communist system removes the incentive to work.

disintegore 5y ago
That would imply that the individual in question cannot imagine any incentive to work other than the profit motive, which in my eyes is not only an extremely depressing notion to contemplate, but also one that falls apart very rapidly if you consider that human society predates capitalism by thousands of years, and that even within capitalist society itself there are countless examples of the opposite.
- mmcdermott 5y ago
  I don't think capitalism assumes profit to be the sole motivation for activity, just that it is the only one that works well for creating cooperation in the large. Almost anyone, regardless of belief system, practices or can conceive of hobbies that are done for the intrinsic enjoyment of the thing. Some hobbies produce goods or services (building models or playing music) but some may not (reading). What lies at the heart of any economic system is the division of labor as a multiplier of wealth. A hunter-gatherer requires neither communism nor capitalism to motivate if failure to hunt/gather results in starvation. An individual's motivation need not go farther than that. Once you start dividing labor, you also need a way to incentivize people to pick the right labor. Communism supposes that people will continue to pick valuable jobs (here defined as ones that generate goods and services for the collective) of their own accord. Capitalism says that profit & loss will sort out who is doing what is deemed beneficial by others. This, if true, does imply something about human nature and not necessarily something good. That doesn't make it more or less true.