As I sit here reading, just a few points float into my brain...
1) It is perfectly possible for money to still be around in a true Communism. Instead of it being it being the be-all and end-all for life, it will instead simply be a ration ticket for goods and services. It will be valued by how much it costs to produce, rather than how much capitalism will get away with charging. If I want to spend my £
x on subsriptions to the Adult Channel, cider and kebabs, I can. My call. A tool itself is not evil - only the ends it is used for. Money is a tool like no other.
2) 'People are paid what they are worth' - No offence to any intended, but I now need a big bucket. Who do you think values people's occupations - the capitalist elite does! Some of the highest paid occupaitons are ones which directly serve the elite - the lawyers to protect their power and wealth, and the bankers and stockbrokers to make this wealth grow larger. It's not like they are completly usless, it's just that there are far too many of them for the some 85% of the opressed people.
3) This assumption that there are no lazy people in capitalist society. There are! The idle rich is still around. George W. Bush is a good example of this. There is also lazy people in all groups, from the unemployed worker hiding from their ReStart officer to the career jobsworth working the bare minamum to avoid being fired. The capitalist society can carry them, a true communist one can too.
4) Yes, the USA is elegitarian. I've heard this many times. Shame it is not really true anymore. The elite has become self-replicating, class divisions (as a true Marxist, I hold that race is usally an issue of class in disguise) have remained stubbornly strong and income disparity is increasing. The UK is not, so I am told by popular culture. Wrong. The land of Kings and Earls has the same amount of social moblity as the Land of the Free, and inter-racial links are on the whole better in the UK than the US. This is not opinion, but facts. Details on request.
5) It's almost impossible to read Marx. I've been dealing with him for years now and it's still like reading Chaucer. And I've been educated in Politics, Economics and Sociology to a good level. I personally recommend the Iron Heel by Jack London as a primer. It's not too long or difficult, and it expains a hell of a lot of Marx by only mentioning him once.
6) BasketCase - completly correct.
A Co-Op is nearly identical to a traditional corperation. Nothing wrong with that. A corperation looks after it's shareholders. Period. They may say they look after other groups and people, but only because it is good for their bottom lines in the end. A co-op (or worker's council or whatever you call it) is just the same but it now looks after the public at large. New driver, same engine. Again, tool and uses.
7) Every capitalist elite starts out with a few self-made men. They pass their wealth and advantages to their children, and a few more self-made men join their 'club'. A few generations pass, with this happening. This group beomes completly seperate with the rest of society, and finally becomes large enough to become self-replicating, actully needing no new blood from below. A few will fall out or leap out, and a few will wiggle in to the elite group, but it will become even harder to do so every generation, as it hardens. The US is again an exellent example of this. For resoning why the elite does this, read 1984 by George Orwell. I can't be bothered.
8) I think I agree with Wob Shop on the Ronco Compact Showtime Rotisserie. The food does look tasty, though. Naught against the guy though, unless he delibleratly designed it to fall apart or blow up 45 seconds after the warranty expires. Then he should be put up against the wall. But think - what would happen if every family in the world demanded one? Or every adult on earth demanded a new car every three years? It would be an utter enviomental catasphophy! It is phyically impossible for the whole world's populations to have the same standard of living as the US.
