[steveklabnik]

> If you can get enough farms/factories producing the widgets of everyday life essentially for the sum of the input commodity costs, energy costs, and some small overhead (and the free market/technology relentlessly drives overhead towards 0), you wind up being able to take care of everyone-- but you don't take care of everyone with jobs.

Congratulations, you're a communist! (This is basically the communist manifesto, if you squint.)

(So am I, this is not sarcastic. Always good to find more here on HN.)

[mdakin]

I'm probably more of a social anarchist than anything, but I think labels are often unhelpful. The beauty of our current situation is that we can build it on top of America as it exists today. No need to label it-- just build it. :)

[steveklabnik]

I switch between autonomous Marxism, anarcho-communism, or post-{anarchy, communism} depending on how I'm feeling and who I talk to, so I know that feeling.

Labels are useful, but your emphasis on building is absolutely accurate.

[mdakin]

I think labels can be useful when they are used to facilitate communication and understanding. But they can also be used as weapons and to manipulate people who have trouble communicating and understanding. I suspect we're on the same page. :)

[RickHull]

I'd say that quote means he is a utopian. Communism describes a particular methodology (e.g. abolition of private property) that is theorized to lead to said utopia. I'm not so certain he is a proponent of Communist methods.

[mdakin]

Yeah, I think the "Communist methods" that were tried in Eastern Europe and Asia are generally horrible ideas. And those methods are now tied up with the philosophy for better or worse. I def. don't think those methods work.

America provides a stable foundation upon which new experiments may be conducted. I know it's critical to take care of and fix America within the system as much as possible so that it can maintain its stability. But I think the real value of America involves it being that stable foundation upon which different people can try different ideas. America is not as wed-to/obsessed-with the past as much as many parts of the world-- thankfully. As breaking away from the past is critical to the advancement of humanity.

[steveklabnik]

The strategies are to bring about the abolishment of the Law of Value, but they're talking about after that.

(And Marxism is specifically a critique of Utopianism...)