In theory, I agree with this wholeheartedly.
I have no idea if it's true in practice.
I have no idea if it's true in practice.
Worst case, everyone ends up with the means to be housed, fed, and have healthcare
The reasons why I suspect communism will never work don't seem to apply to socialism/capitalism with UBI.
Ironically you see much the same thing with small government/libertarian ideology in the US, and "free market" capitalism, where deregulation and "reducing government waste" tend to benefit capitalists and politicians and remove rights and access from the people.
When I reflect on the patterns that seem to repeat across levels of abstractions (physics, chemistry, biology, psychology...) is there any example of a mechanism that evolved towards optimal that resembles (even roughly) the basic shape of communism?
I haven't found one yet, but if there were one I would expect it to show up in how cells in complex multi celled organisms (e.g. humans) organize themselves and manage resources. In other words, it someone can make a compelling case that a system in our bodies regulating our cells at large scales has strong parallels to communism, I'll be more inclined to think communism has a role in optimally regulating human behavior at scale. What I know is far far less than what I don't know, so it's possible there are many examples I just haven't come across yet.
Whereas I can see parallels to capitalism (free market competition and cooperation) all over nature.
Note I'm not making a moral argument here. I'm trying to use an understanding of the universe and nature to get an intuition of whether communism is a hallucination or an optimal algorithm, and if it is an optimal algorithm in which contexts is it optimal?
> The worker bees aren't doing their job for money, but for the betterment of the hive.
How do you know why they are doing what they do?
Do you think that the cells in your body do what they do for the betterment of your body? As in the cells in your body are aware of you and your well-being?
Do you know for a fact that the bees that collect the most pollen don't get additional privileges within the hive? What their biological feedback system and incentive system is exactly? I'm not sure, but this is what I'm wondering how.
So this is an interesting contrast, in this example in nature a pattern that resembles communism seems optimal when each bee/agent has identical function to all other bees/agents. I'm dramatically oversimplifying here, but it seems like a distinction that matters.
Also, you're mistaken in assuming that cooperation doesn't exist in socialism (I'm going to use the term "socialism" here to refer to the more broadly defined concept rather than "communism" specifically, although to some people it's a distinction without a difference.) Broadly speaking, the entire goal is communal ownership and distribution of resources, particularly of the means of production so that workers own the rights and profits of their labor.
Animals and biological systems do use common resources and cooperate, but they don't tend to form corporate structures to exploit those resources for profit, so the thesis that nature and physics are more capitalist than socialist seems designed to beg the question for an already capitalist worldview.
Sounds like you have considered every possible parallel and are confident you already know what's what.
> you're mistaken in assuming that cooperation doesn't exist in socialism
I don't assume this, and I never said this. Straw man.
Also we were taking about communism, not socialism, and there is a difference.
> but they don't tend to form corporate structures to exploit those resources for profit
Way to hold up the least respectful interpretation of my point and attack that. Lame.
The biggest impression I got from your comment is you aren't curious about this subject.