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Comment by ertjaet | Hacker News Reader

except... it isn't? that's literally not what socialism or collectivism is. socialism is just the idea that "wealth" (or any substitute, like lego) should be owned by the community, and rules that bind that community should be made by a consensus of the members.

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It's a fine idea. Too bad it always results in collapse or starvation and then collapse.

oh no we taught the kids to share and now they're starving and the classroom has collapsed

Good thing they weren't teaching the kids to grow food. Watch what happens when the kids have to work to acquire the goodies, instead of it just being handed to them.

This is how that argument usually goes.

"This policy proposal might be helpful. Is it? Let's see: The policy is socialist in nature + socialism killed millions in authoritarian communist regimes = this policy will kill millions. Therefore we must not allow the policy to succeed."

I can't imagine how they ignore the flaws. People do this, without exaggeration, unconditionally for every socialist policy.

Teaching kids a failed philosophy just sets them up for failure as adults. There's an infinite universe of things to teach - why not teach them something useful, something that works?

> Therefore we must not allow the policy to succeed

Oh, but we do allow it to succeed. There are no laws against communes and worker collectives in the US. Any group can form one. And many have - thousands of them.

They all failed on their own.

You and your like-minded colleagues are welcome to give it a try. Nobody is going to try to stop you. You can ask Bernie to supply the funds (he's rich) and be your leader. I only ask that you come back in a year and tell us how it went.

> Oh, but we do allow it to succeed.

You allowed the minimum wage to be increased? You allowed us to require companies to give maternity leave? You allowed us to expand SNAP benefits? If so, it's news to me.

The US allows voluntary communism to do what it likes. You seem to want to do it by force. You can include me out of that.

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