Capitalism Hits the Fan: A Marxian View

Comment by Kate on April 23, 2009 at 3:35pm

This is Lara, The part about being more productive whilst throwing frisbees and wearing burmuda shorts makes sense. Why are they called Communists?
Lara

Comment by waldopaper on April 23, 2009 at 7:49pm

OK- taking a shot an an answer:

Wollf was taking some license... but his point is that the decisions and appropriation of "resources" (profits) is more egalitarian... "equal" or a more "common" (as in "the commons") control of the means of production... which may even include common ownership. Equal (or common) control AND ownership would be "communism."

Comment by curt on April 24, 2009 at 4:36pm

No serious meetings on mondays. Nobody likes to go to meetings on a monday. No dress code. Come in burmuda shorts if you please but if Customers are in the house that particular day, wear the clean burmuda shorts. Please. Common sense. Fridays. Pizza day. The boss sets the mood by coming in early, with a joint in one hand and a piece of cold pizza from last night in the other hand. He's been up all night working on a solution, so let him bounce off the walls if it helps him ...in any way. You're the one in the middle. It's all up to you. The success of the company depends on you and your way of pulling it all together by being your self and not just another dick in a suit with a noose around his neck. Your boss takes another toke off his joint, a bite outa his cold piza and crys out "WE NEED TO HOLD A MEETING". It is then your job, as the man in the middle, to carefully, politely remind (!) your boss and everyone else present that today is FRIDAY. Your boss goes "uhm, you're right, when's the last time I gave you a raise?" So you all sit down and chat about the solution your boss has come up with. No, stop. You all get up and throw the frisbee around a while and freewheel discuss the matter until you decide enough is enough and it's friday so let's order more pizza and hey, dude, don't bogart that.

THAT, is COMMUNISM.

almost.

Comment by curt on April 24, 2009 at 4:46pm

P.S. been there, done that and hell yes, that WAS one of those very successful companies. And YES, we were into software solutions. I was the lab tech / release control manager / source control / pizza boy / frizbee man / man-in-the-middle / purchaser / water boy the boss came to to ask what the engineers were thinking while having to listen to him go on about his wife leaving him stuck with a half finished house with italian terra cotta shingles while we shared one joint after the other. I'll never forget it. And guess what! It was not unusual. We were high paid, high educated, well trained, young business persons EMPOWERED to wrap our work around our lives the way we wanted it to be. We worked our asses off and we had fun doing so. And we succeeded. It was fun while it lasted and that wasn't long but that group of people, now disbursed, still meets regularly. You'll never meet a better bunch of free thinkers in your life.

Comment by Kate on April 26, 2009 at 11:01pm

Pan, thanks for this video - Some folks have shared with us their deep concern fpr this US of A going down the proverbial toilet because we have now become socialists. The idea of a socialist country sure sounds good to me - even if I know it ain't gonna happen

My question is - How can I convince my family that we must get the hell outa dodge with the possibility of leading a meaningful life??????????

Eric said the idea is interesting but the practicality of it (given the current rules of our society and the incentive to stay there) escapes him - Love him to bits but this is I is where I lose patience - now I request your patience. Having been a haus frau for twenty years perhaps it is easier for me. I've come to realize that we are the problem - nothing will get fixed until we change - Lara is going to college (Sept 2009) and as much as I want this for her - my fear is we will not be able to financially see it through (I'm afraid of losing the cash reserve we have and going into debt) The collapse will worsen and even if, as I believe, our government will keep things from totally falling - who wants to live as slaves in a make believe capitalistic/demorcratic society. Hannah's Parallel Community link is a perfect example of a real practical change. Eric doesn't believe the economy will totally collapse -instead he truly believes that for the short and medium term things will not get bad enough to convince a large enough segment of the population to change their life style. He is convinced that without large numbers, such revolutionary change is not likely to happen. However, he does reconize that if everyone believes like him then indeed things will not change - thus his dilemna.

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