Is a Communist Utopia possible?

[doppelgänger]

Oh, and a libertarian utopia is equally impossible. Absolute economic freedom is only sustainable as long there are no excessive behaviors such as dishonesty, theft, violence or corruption in pursuit of self-interest to the harm of someone else's "freedom."

[Straw Dog]

Originally Posted by Mr Spinkles

A guy I met from Croatia said complete central planning of the economy cannot work, and has not worked. A committee of bureaucrats is going to be very inefficient at figuring out the optimum number of shoes that should be produced each year. Competition and market forces are best suited to figure out such details.

My guess is a free market modulated by some degree of central planning is the best system.

I don't really endorse communism, capitalism, or a mix between the two. I guess I'm more of a libertarian socialist at heart with heavy leanings toward libertarian municipalism and an eventual end to money itself.

I don't believe any utopia is possible in practice. For one thing, its a horribly anthropocentric view of things. Why should it all be about us?

I do think that a centrally planned communist state of sorts is possible, however, albeit under the condition that it's organized by a system of highly advanced super computers and artificial intelligences...but who wants to live under synthetic rule?

[Me Myself]

Most civilizations in South America were analogous to communits before European invasion.

Rightful communism should be posible. But yeah, probably with less people.

It was Gandhi I believe that said that Earth had enough resources to feed everyone, but not enough for everyone to have a BMW.

[Matthew78]

Originally Posted by Mr Spinkles

Matthew78,

I sympathize with the idea, but it's hard for me to imagine an anarcho-communist economy working out in practice. Are there current or historical examples of this system in practice?

I don't know about anarcho-communism as argued for by Peter Kropotkin but I do know of some examples of libertarian socialist economic systems on a small scale that have been put into practice. One type of libertarian socialist economy is "participatory economics". This was formulated by Robin Hahnel and Michael Albert. Albert cofounded South End Press, which is based upon participatory economics. Hahnel lists examples in his book Economic Justice and Democracy. I would strongly encourage you to read this book to get a good idea of what participatory economics is as well as examples of how people have been trying to implement it.

[nnmartin]

Originally Posted by doppelgänger

Oh, and a libertarian utopia is equally impossible. Absolute economic freedom is only sustainable as long there are no excessive behaviors such as dishonesty, theft, violence or corruption in pursuit of self-interest to the harm of someone else's "freedom."

There could still be a police force and army to keep order.

[doppelgänger]

Originally Posted by nnmartin

There could still be a police force and army to keep order.

Who would pay for it?

[swamplizard]

Greetings,

Perhaps the key word here is, "Utopia." The politico-economic structure is secondary to the species evolved sufficiently to attain the state of existence in an utopian society.

best,
swampy

[nnmartin]

Originally Posted by doppelgänger

Who would pay for it?

The Government would pay for the police and army , can't see any problem with that.

any objections?

[Sunstone]

Originally Posted by nnmartin

The Government would pay for the police and army , can't see any problem with that.

any objections?

How does the government get the money to pay for the police and army?

[Mathematician]

A utopia by definition does not exist. It's an idealized projection. Also we have to define what communism represents. The vision Marx had is not the same thing as the Soviet Union. In fact Marx was pretty vague, and there's a lot of "tinkering" with the communist idea from other philosophers (both before and after him).

At the minimum, I would say communism is defined by two traits: 1.) democratic ownership of the means of production (democratic does not imply state-owned, however) and 2.) lack of money.