I think I may have sleeping disorder now. In spite of an early waking up this morning, I still cannot but my self to sleep at two thirty in the next morning. And strangely, my mind seem to function more quickly at night. So, perhaps, I should spit it out and then go to sleep.
Capitalism and Communism. I've studied it, from high school to college. But I've never pay enough attention to fully understand them. So, this is the way I saw it:
In this world, everything has its value, and its price. We sell things at its price, and the buyer get its value. As a casual employee, we sell our labor, our work. We used tool, we did things with them, we made value from them, and we sell that value to our employer. The employer own that value as his/her private property. That private ownership is the root of capitalism.
The problem with capitalism, as Marx saw it is: The value that was created worth much more than the price of the labor. The labors will receive a sum of money that can help them refresh them self, that mean to get feed, to get rest, to get entertained, so that he can go back to work. But his work worth more than that price. Because if the value someone created when working was just strictly enough to keep him/her living, then our society will not develop. There has to be some profit in working, or else, no one will work.
So, the employer got a good bargain, and the employee lost their profit. Marx call it an exploitation. Of course, if the price for labor was raised as high as his/her work's value, there will be no exploitation, but then how can the employer get fed. So, In Marx point of view, the employee always lost something. And if we take into account that in Marx's time, average wage was not enough for worker to get fed. Then sure it had been exploitation.
And so!
To fix that problem, Marx suggest Communism. It was a so innovative, brilliance idea. Instead of targeting the different between value and price he target the ownership itself. You can't fix a price to every value, the price change from time to time and place to place, it's nature for price to be a different from value. The ownership of something, however, is a society term, and thus can be bend.
Communism is a social system that no one privately own the profit created from their work or other's work. So, the value that employee has created, will not be own by any employer. Instead, the society will distribute that value in such a way that every citizen get a decent share, accord to their need. In short, the means of work belong to the society, and the people work for the society's profit, not for their employer's profit.
In that society, Every man and woman will work to their fullest capability, and receive enough to fulfill their every-need. And the amount of value one receive will raise as the society develop.
No one too rich, no one too poor
everyone get what they need
What an utopia!
But…! There has not been a single society on Earth ever to reach that point of Communism for long.
Marx's society require that people won't ask for more than society can provide, people won't try to acquire too much and leave other suffering in poverty. That is a level of humanity that mankind has not yet reached.
If a man is smart, cunning, talented, his work will create more value, he has the capability to get rich. Would he be able to forget his selfish and let the society take away his profit to distribute to other men, who are more disadvantaged than him? That is not something everyone can do. Man is selfish, after all.
And an even worse case, every here and there, we got lazy man, who don't want to work their fullest capability but still want to receive all that they need, even more. Man is greedy, after all
Therefore, in most country, people agree to the capitalism system, in which, the more you work, the more you get paid. You don't have to care about other's. Of course your employer will take a fraction of your profit, but if the wage was descent, then that can be an acceptable compromise.
So, can Communism be the social system for the future? That's not something I can tell, but something I may believe. When mankind would be selfish-less enough, greedy-less enough then communism would be utopia. But it isn't something individual can decide.