The Socialist Party

There's a lovely little Tweet doing the rounds at the moment

 

Jack’s a carpenter. His neighbour Jean’s a baker. Jean has some doors with loose hinges. Jack says he’ll fix them. Jean says she’ll give him some cakes as a thank you. Scale up a willingness to help others, where all will receive what they need, and you have a socialist society. pic.twitter.com/xuLZDNFqAQ

— The Socialist Party (@OfficialSPGB) March 14, 2023

It has been pointed out by numerous replies that this is actually the definition of Capitalism; Trading one good or service for another good or service, usually via the medium of some kind of currency

 

But the currency is what the issue is for the Socialist Party.  They want to remove the money, pool the goods and let everyone just take what they need

 

 

 

This idea falls at the first hurdle. Assume I'm a plumber (Stop laughing at the back). Using the original Tweet and 'scaling up', I would need to find people who can supply everything I need, and also require their pipes fixing

I don't particularly like cakes, so I would have to fix the cake ladies pipes for free. Unless I could find someone who wants cakes before they go off

If I need a new pair of jeans, I would have to find someone who makes jeans (Not sells them on the market, as we've done away with money and jobs, but makes them), who also had a leaky tap. Or wanted some cakes

Humans moved on from the barter system centuries ago, as you can acheive so much more by having a medium of exchange accepted by all, such as money

Even scaling up what the SP are saying, we still have to make things, so those things would have to be put in a central pot by the Government, so people could take out what they need

Assuming the Government agree that you actually need it

 The Socialist Party do not think you deserve to own a boat that only you would use. That would of course, apply to a great many things. Things that we want, but don't necessarily need, we wouldn't be able to have

The above Tweet, although not mentioned, is about CEOs and their big yatchs. Socialists do not like people to make lots of money and buy nice things, so in their paradise, you would not be allowed to own a big boat, even if the cake lady also made big boats and gave you one for fixing her door

Try to imagine the things you own or have access to now, that the SP would not allow you to have in their ideal world of faries and unicorns

One of the major reasons Socialism has never worked, is because it requires everyone to be involved. You can't opt out

 

 

 

Most of those who didn't vote for it would respect the majority and go along with it? Like the Left respected Brexit?

The promlem is, 100% of people will not go along with it. If I wanted a big boat that only I could use, there would be ways around the system. Rather than giving all my unicorns and faries to the Government, I could choose to keep some for myself, eventually trading my unicorns with like minded people and creating our own system

Eventually though, the Socialists would see what I was doing and they wouldn't like it. The would cry to the Government that I have built my own big boat and I won't tlet them play with it. At the same time, other people who want big boats would see what we were doing and want to be a part of it

Under the socialist system, everyone has to be involved, or it doesn't work. As stated above, this system could well be voted in (more so in todays climate), but the people who voted for it would be the people who want things, not the people who have things

When the wants see that the haves are not sharing, they insist the Government gets involved. Which usually ends with the haves being shot and the wants taking all their stuff

Eventually everyone will go along with the deocratic process, as they don't want to be shot or thrown in prison

 

The SP are vastly mistaken when it comes to human nature. There are far too many people who are happy to take from others and give nothing. This is usually disguised as making the rich pay their fair share. Just look at the number of people living on benefits

This is why their system will not work

The others however, the ones who are happy to work for what they want, already do help each other out in the manner described

I've done countless jobs for others without request for payment, and others have done countless jobs for me, also without asking for anything. It happens all the time. Virtually none of these jobs did end up with no payment; you usually pay in beer or fags or something

 

Humans are a social animal and do tend to help people out when needed, it's just the scaling up bit where it becomes a problem. If that was possible, and it really was human nature, we would already be there

Helping people out is voluntary. Human nature is voluntary. We should never need to vote into law, something that is truly human nature, as it would already be happenening

The faries and unicorn world of the SP needs to be voted in, as the Government needs the mandate to come down hard on those that don't want to volunteer

Of course this has been proved time and time again, whenever Socialsim has been tried and the bodies started to pile up. But of course, true believers like the SP think that if we just di it thier way this time, all will be sweetness and light

 

It doesn't matter what Marx or Engels said. It doesn't matter if real socialism has been tried before. It doesn't matter if your system is new or old. In one tweet, you've described a totally unworkable system, confirmed your ignorance of human nature and exposed your beliefs in using force to get what you want

You've described a system I want no part of