this post was submitted on 17 Nov 2025
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How do you force people to give according to their ability? What if they don't want to?
That's not what people mean by saying "from each according to their abilities, to each according to their needs." There's no Robin Hood figure robbing people at gunpoint. What it means is that all of production and distribution is collectivized and run according to a common plan in order to satisfy everyone's needs.
That's a pretty rose tinted view. It is, generally speaking, "collectivized" at gunpoint.
Yes, capitalist property is hostorically siezed by the people through force, just like feudalism was ended by force. I don't have rose tinted glasses, I know force is required, I just see it as necessary and the outcome extremely positive.
That's a fine perspective to have. But it is the textbook definition of robbing someone at gunpoint.
They have something of value that you want, you don't want to exchange said value for it, so you take it by force... at gunpoint.
Maybe there's a moral justification for that. Maybe you think they don't deserve it, or you need it more, or you think their ownership of it represents it's own form of theft... But they're definitely getting robbed at gunpoint.
Capitalists already steal value from workers by paying them less than the value they create. One short bout of "theft" to take back what was stolen over centuries isn't really theft, it's returning what's owed.
That's what I was getting at. Don't soft pedal it.
"There WILL be a Robin Hood type taking shit at gunpoint".
You're mixing up the revolution and ensuing socialist period with the communist, fully collectivized period. "From each according to their abilities to each according to their needs" applies to the fully collectivized communist period, and doesn't need to be "enforced at gunpoint," it just exists without capitalists anymore. The revolution does have appropriation from capitalists, as well as the socialist period of gradually collectivizing society's production and distribution.
That's a bit of a cop out. "There's no Robin Hood at that specific point because it's already been taken at gunpoint by the time we dole it out".
That doesn't erase the fact that they're very much is a Robin Hood figure with a gun. And if you want to seize everything at gunpoint You should at least be up front about it.
If your point is true and right in virtuous you do not need a spin on it.
I'm not spinning anything, you asked a question about communism and I answered, and now you're moving the goalposts to revolution and early socialism.
"From each according to their ability, to each according to their needs" refers to communism. It's a direct response to the OP. "From each according to their ability, to each according to their work" refers to socialism and revolution, but wasn't the subject of the OP.
No. I answered OP's question about communism, then it got shifted to socialism and revolution. This is important, as the original question was framed as how do you keep communism going.
Sure.
Oh no! How dare the peasants rob the nobility at gun point of their rightful fiefdoms!
I'm not taking a normative position here. I'm not saying anything about morality, or good guys and bad guys. I'm offering up moral frameworks to justify those actions. My takeaway from Robin Hood wasn't that he was the villain.
I just don't get why you'd act like the idea is NOT to take from the ownership class at gunpoint when that's the whole idea. None of the rest of it works unless you do that. Just say it with your whole chest. Don't removed out.
That's the singular aspect I'm judging.
This question comes from the “what if everyone just wants to do nothing” to justify the existence of a system in which if you are not able to work you die.
Everyone is guaranteed a job, so if they don’t want to then they will just have less money to go around, or maybe they wouldn’t even need to if what they did is automated. However, regardless of whether they work or not, they are guaranteed food and housing. So they just get to do whatever they want. In a communist system someone livelihood is not tied to a job.
"A good example is [made up bullshit]"
Wow, very compelling.
Great reply, no worries they removed my comment so you can feel safe now.
Good. Go back to Reddit
I never was on reddit.
You'd like it
Somehow I doubt I'd be better received there. Anti-china propaganda runs deep all over.
Don't you mean genocide? Lazy liberals can't even keep their made up zenz story straight.
What happens when someone doesn't pay taxes today?
They get elected President.
I think you are missing a lot of steps in between.
Then they can go live in a country where you can take from society and contribute nothing back.