Have we become a communist nation?
Ten planks of the Communist Manifesto
1. Abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to public purposes. (in progress, federal government owns 35% of all land and the foreclosures that are coming will wipe out private ownership)
2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax. (done, but can be more extreme)
3. Abolition of all right of inheritance. (inheritance tax)
4. Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels. (RICO-drugs, enemy combatants and those against Iraq war can lose their property)
5. Centralization of credit in the hands of the State, by means of a national bank with State capital and an exclusive monopoly. (Fed)
6. Centralization of the means of communication and transport in the hands of the State. (FCC, DOT)
7. Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the State; the bringing into cultivation of waste-lands, and the improvement of the soil generally in accordance with a common plan. (in progress, state is buying shares in corporations)
8. Equal liability of all to labour. Establishment of industrial armies, especially for agriculture. (Obamas plan for public service)
9. Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual abolition of the distinction between town and country, by a more equable distribution of the population over the country. (done)
10. Free education for all children in public schools. Abolition of children’s factory labour in its present form. Combination of education with industrial production (done)
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21 Answers
I would agree with that also. But after reading the planks in part 2 of the Manifesto, who knows what we are anymore.
Wouldnt we be closer to a socialist nation than communist nation?
Not yet, but we’re working on it.
Go to Romania, which was Communist till 1989. Talk to people. We’re nowhere near
what Communism actually looks like.
Or China. Or read some Dickens to see how great pure capitalism works.
I just love absolutists. It must be so easy to view the world in black or white.
I didn’t know that it was even possible to view the world in black or white.
This is a really dumb question. Possibly the stupidest question I’ve read on Fluther—not because the question itself is dumb (plenty of questions like that) but because it is both well-researched and still totally vapid. This is clearly a response to the bail-out, but unfortunately a response in the direction absolutely opposite anything that would be helpful. Wake up! The “threat” of “communism” is gone! It was socialism anyway. And to answer your totally illegitimate question…well, at least in communism there’s a theory of redistributing and sharing resources with a goal of equality. The pathetic joke we call a federal government would not even begin to claim such a goal: the effect of so much that you cite is more or less forthrightly a system to entrench power and reward the undeserving.
Or to be more direct:
1. Totally incorrect. Reactionary and frankly hysterical.
2. Graduation of taxes is nothing compared with the rich-poor gap in this country.
3. Far from accomplished. There are tons of loopholes, and the rich know this. Believe me, I am in a position to know.
4. This is a principle of liberal democracies, certain republics, dictatorships, empires, socialist governments, and all fascist states. Not unique.
5. Granted, but it was only in name that this had not already been accomplished long ago. Don’t underestimate the degree of collusion between the federal government and the hands that structure the economic scene in the US. Same people.
6. Yes, absolutely. This is a frontier for resistance though. Pirate your everything!
7. You have no reading of this point; your total lack of historical perspective is evident here. Sure, you could read a US military-industrial complex as fulfilling this point, but the “improvement of lands” seems like a stretch. We’re closer to the “democratically” sanctioned “fucking-up of the entire planet.”
8. An incorrect characterization of Obama, and much more importantly a total failure to understand the state of agriculture in the US.
9. Factually incorrect! Look at the depopulation of states like Iowa in the past half-century. Also, um, what does this have to do with anything?!
10. For one thing, equal education is far from achieved. I should know: I teach. For another thing, child labor may be “abolished” in this country, but I can guarantee that every single non-naked person reading these words is wearing something made in a country where sweat-shop factories and child labor remain alive and well. We wear on our backs the products of child labor, and just because you don’t see kids going to factories, don’t for a minute think that child labor does not factor crucially into the American economy. What we buy is very literally the product of tiny little under-paid fingers.
And let me correct my previous post. There are no stupid questions, only stupid people.
Communist? This country is becoming the polar opposite. We are quickly becoming a fascist nation.
Oh! My! God!
It’s true! I mean, True! With a capital T!
What have we done? We’ve turned into communists? America! Land of the Free and Home of the Brave! Communists! Why, that’s unAmerican!
There ought to be a law. No. If there were a law, those damn commies would write it and then it wouldn’t be a law. It’d be a jail!
Gun. Get your gun. March on Washington. Twist those idiot congress critters antennae behind their geeky necks, and if they pass gas, shoot em! That’s what commies, do, you know. Pass gas. I’d use the F word, but the commies stole that one, too.
Watch your Bibles now! Opium is the religion of the masses. No. Religion is the mass of the opium. Something like that. Let’s hie ourselves to the redoubt. Deep in the mountain. We won’t come out until a plutonium half life has passed. Or Armageddon. Whichever come first.
Sheesh. What kind of half-baked question is this!
An education in the wrong heads is a terrible thing!
we are getting there…. dont like it one bit
I don’t see how a nation run by Exxon and friends, GlaxoSmithKlineBeechamPfizer, StatefarmAllstateFarmers, BlueShieldKaiserHumana, etc. could be called communist. This country is corporate ruled, not labor ruled. That’s fascism, my friend.
@AstroChuck
I agree 100%. I’ve been arguing that for a long time on fluther. The only reason I asked was because of the 10 planks I have read.
As usual on fluther though, if you ask a question that doesnt jive with the majority view on things, you get attacked.
I think anywhere that you want to have a discussion about politics or religion, you stand a chance of raising some harsh opinions. It took some time, but I think your points were addressed.
You took a stance that was pretty reactionary and received equally reactionary responses.
That’s the problem with being in the minority, you either give in or hold to your point. But if you hold to your point, then you need to be ready to defend it and accept the consequences of that position. (i.e. people have lost jobs, been exiled and killed for their opinions when they went against the status quo)
Fluther seems pretty moderate compared to the reactions you might get if you took the idea out to the street corner or to the press.
And your question was very obviously provocative, next time if you want more moderate responses, try a little subtlety.
In your face begets in your face.
The question wasn’t reactionary; it was merely absurd.
No, we are still very much a capitalist society. As for your interpretation of Marx’s points, I’ll just touch on a few.
3. This isn’t the abolition of inheritance, it’s a tax on it. And as someone said earlier, there are definitely loopholes.
4. When you move to another country, the government doesn’t take your land and home. You sell it and you get the profit from it (minus some taxes and fees).
8. If you think that everyone works equally (esp. in agriculture) you’re sadly mistaken.
9. Umm, really? The distinction between town and country is not gone and the even distribution of population doesn’t exist. California… Wyoming.. hmm..
10. .....No.
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