practical communism in capitalist countries

Mention the dreaded "C" word and eyebrows are raised. communism? in capitalist countries? like america and england? in this day and age? how about that.

"Production means should be owned by the people". the larger american companies which own plants and factories and employ tens of thousands of people are public companies with shares traded on the new york stock exchange, the nasdaq and other stock markets.

The entities which own most of these shares are huge investment and pension funds. in turn, these funds are owned by millions of individuals who have invested their savings with them. thus, plants, factories, equipment, land and entire companies are owned by millions of individuals (presumably "workers" as they probably have a job somewhere). production means are owned by the working people.

"To each according to his needs and from each according to his abilities". the american worker gets a salary according to his skills and abilities. as it usually happens human needs exceed available resources (i.e. salaries) even in advanced countries such as America. if the "from each according to his abilities" part is clear enough, how can the "to each according to his needs" part be possible in a highly competitive country such as the US?

First of all through credit. if you have a job you can buy everything you need on credit: cars are bough on credit, houses are bought on credit, clothes and electronic appliances are bought on credit. even small expenses such as food and movie tickets are made with credit cards. what this means is that instead of buying only the stuff that he can afford (based on abilities), the american worker buys the things he needs or wants, and pays back later in monthly installments. and not to worry about hard times - credit refinancing and restructuring is widely available.

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What if the american worker gets sick or has an accident and can't afford medical treatment? he sues somebody: he sues mcdonald's for being fat and developing heart problems; he sues tobacco companies for developing lung problems; he sues the city for tripping on the sidewalk and breaking his leg; he sues his employer for having a car accident while driving the company car and having a blowjob performed on him at the same time; he sues pretty much anyone for psychological distress.

So, the worker sues; the defendent - usually a company - has to pay huge awards. don't worry about the "poor" company though - what it does is it passes these costs on to consumers by raising the prices of its products; in the end society pays for medical bills of individuals. "to each according to his need and from each according to his ability".

Then there's the issue of the "unique party". in all fairness, america does not have one single party, but two: the democrats and the republicans, who take turns at winning elections. naturally, there are dozens of insignificant parties, whom no one really cares about. the situation is the same in many other capitalist countries.

An elite class of rulers that holds power and resources? sure, although in this day and age the power holding elite is in business and finance, not necessarily in politics.

Press control? not really, but there are only a handfull of major news networks and all of them are usually aligned with state policy. Mass ignorance? Pretty much.

Land of the free? sure, you're free to do whatever you like as long as you obey the millions of detailed laws, rules and regulations that only lawyers with 6 digit salaries can attempt to untangle.

Communism as we know it is almost dead. but some of its principles are alive and kicking in subtle ways in many of today's democracies. I thought you should know.

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