3 ms·

We have a similar idea to those communes already, they are called "businesses".

jjoonathan 11y ago
Does the business you work for produce the goods and services you consume, or at least the goods and services you need to survive? Does the business you work for have a recipe for turning unskilled labor into the goods & services required for those people to lead a similarly comfortable life? If so, that's good news, because it means that your business is in a position to alleviate the economic nightmare scenario we are all worrying about. FWIW I agree that the "communes of the future" will be businesses, but I disagree that the businesses of the present are the same as the proposed communes of the future. Current businesses are specialized and have customers different from their employees. "Commune" businesses would be relatively generalized and have employees as their primary customers. It's a substantially different structure and, I believe, one that provides considerably fewer opportunities to reliably deleverage large chunks of the human population.
- SixSigma 11y ago
  Once you've re-run history, you'll discover trade.
  - jjoonathan 11y ago
    You haven't put as much thought into this as you seem to think you have; you are still retracing the first 5% of my thought process on this topic. The point isn't to eliminate trade, markets, capitalism, or even jobs. Just the opposite, I would imagine. The point is that a hypothetical "extremistan" future in which most people struggle to eek out a living presents a business opportunity which has historically failed to take off due to the limits of manufacturing technology. If someone can make this business opportunity work, it will act as a relief valve to alleviate extreme poverty.
- alphapapa 11y ago
  > "Commune" businesses would be relatively generalized and have employees as their primary customers. Aren't those called "communities", i.e. towns and cities? More specifically, ones before the advent of railroads and cars, where trade was geographically limited to the immediate surroundings. Except in your "commune" version, everyone in the town works for the mayor, and they have to apply for membership before they can move in. Sounds like some form of distributed communism.

Does the business you work for produce the goods and services you consume, or at least the goods and services you need to survive? Does the business you work for have a recipe for turning unskilled labor into the goods & services required for those people to lead a similarly comfortable life? If so, that's good news, because it means that your business is in a position to alleviate the economic nightmare scenario we are all worrying about. FWIW I agree that the "communes of the future" will be businesses, but I disagree that the businesses of the present are the same as the proposed communes of the future. Current businesses are specialized and have customers different from their employees. "Commune" businesses would be relatively generalized and have employees as their primary customers. It's a substantially different structure and, I believe, one that provides considerably fewer opportunities to reliably deleverage large chunks of the human population.

SixSigma 11y ago
Once you've re-run history, you'll discover trade.
- jjoonathan 11y ago
  You haven't put as much thought into this as you seem to think you have; you are still retracing the first 5% of my thought process on this topic. The point isn't to eliminate trade, markets, capitalism, or even jobs. Just the opposite, I would imagine. The point is that a hypothetical "extremistan" future in which most people struggle to eek out a living presents a business opportunity which has historically failed to take off due to the limits of manufacturing technology. If someone can make this business opportunity work, it will act as a relief valve to alleviate extreme poverty.
alphapapa 11y ago
> "Commune" businesses would be relatively generalized and have employees as their primary customers. Aren't those called "communities", i.e. towns and cities? More specifically, ones before the advent of railroads and cars, where trade was geographically limited to the immediate surroundings. Except in your "commune" version, everyone in the town works for the mayor, and they have to apply for membership before they can move in. Sounds like some form of distributed communism.