wrote in message
...
On Nov 29, 6:45 pm, "Adam Corolla"
wrote:

Actual communist societies not only survive, they thrive. Twin Oaks and
East Wind in the US are two examples. They produce way more than they
consume. However their membership numbers leveled off in the 1970s at
around 60 to 100, because that's about how many people out of the two to
three hundred million in the US who actually want to live the way Marx
was
talking about. They rule by a set of by-laws which can be changed by a
two-thirds majority vote. In other words, these "communist" societies
are
also true democracies in which the majority (in this case, two-thirds
rather
than +50%) actually rules, unlike any nation on earth!

Maybe some communistic societies thrive, but not all of them. I
visited " The Farm " in Tennessee. They were existing, but not
thriving. The reason seemed to be that those that joined had no
skills or education. With a low standard of living , there was not
much incentive for someone that knew a trade to join. But there was
an incentive for those that were more or less homeless to join. They
were consuming everything that was produced and more. When one joined
one had to contribute all of ones savings. Well actually more like
all that one had inherited.

The Farm is still in existance and has a web site. Apparently they
reorganized in 1983 which is after I had visited. So it is no longer
communistic.

Dan


I believe part of The Farm's problem may have been a lack of organization.
Looking at their web site, I'd say that's still an issue there, to some
degree--the site's layout and design is, plainly speaking, horrible. I
spent quite a while there just trying to find out what The Farm *is* before
I gave up and sent to Wikipedia. Twin Oaks and East Wind have an excellent
system of labor distribution which has worked for decades, and that spirit
of organization shows on their sites:
http://twinoaks.org/
http://www.eastwind.org/main.aspx

Realistically, there's no need for anyone in one of these societies to know
a trade in order for them to survive. If you have ten people all working
for minimum wage and sharing living expenses, you can have a pretty decent
standard of living and build up a savings to boot. As the society gains
wealth and increases its standard of living, more people with skills will be
attracted to living there, which will improve efficiency to an even greater
degree. However, there are *SO FEW* people who actually want to give up
ownership of personal property, these communities will stay very small. I
think this is at least in part the other issue that The Farm faced--which
makes sense as their population has increased since they switched to a more
capitalistic system.