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thank you for expressing that, and i agree. each government system (i prefer to consider it an economic system, rather, as mine is simply the abolition of a concept of money and trade, rather than a system of rule and law. those systems, except for the corruptions caused mostly by and of money, are pretty good.

You'd be surprised. I loved the monotony of working on a shipping dock, and I loved working as a Wal-Greens cashier, Einstein Bagels' cashier/stocker, Chinese restaurant waiter, etc. etc.

@Divine: The real problem with your system is that it's got a great front. It's a great sounding idea, and I can imagine someone standing on their soap box and preaching this idea, painting this world with words, and the starry eyed masses following. Because it really does sound wonderful. But it falls apart under examination. You say that there is no ruler, then you say that you don't get food/whatever unless you work. So, even if it is done through a system where you have, like, a passcard that only works if you've worked recently, that means that there is some form of enforcement. And if there is a justice system, that's another form of enforcement. And where there is enforcement there are people who are in charge.

And beyond that, there is, as we've said over and over, the problem of making people work. Even if they have to work to get food etc, you can't make them work hard. Your analogy of the million dollars an hour is exactly the reason it is a problem: If everyone is paid one million dollars an hour (Which is extravagant but I understand what you are getting at), from the guy working at McDonalds to the guy wiring your house, there is no reason to work hard. You do bad at your job? Doesn't matter, there's no boss to say that you did badly and punish you. This results in all sorts of problems, from something as minor as doors that don't fit their frames to something as major as the house burning down because the wiring is faulty.

As far as your slot idea, you are wrong. The reason I work minimum wage jobs is not because they are the only jobs available; You open a newspaper and there are plenty of jobs available. The reason I work a minimum wage job is that A) It's less work than other jobs and B) I'm not qualified to work other jobs. I would gladly go work as a computer technician for, and this is probably a low estimate, $15 an hour, and that job's available. But I am not qualified to work that job. The difference between capitalism and your version of communism is that, because I'm not qualified to work that job, I can't, in capitalism. In your system, it seems like they'd just toss me in there and train me as I go.

What you are proposing is, in fact, not an economic system at all because an economy is, basically, the flow of money. And the basis of your system is a lack thereof.

Not everyone's cut out to be a doctor, and even those who are probably would prefer to work an easy job in a factory, instead of having to take classes, and remember diseases and symptoms, and get their hands bloody, etc. There are people who are doctors simply to be doctors, and simply because they want to make a difference and save lives, but if you are relying on those people to doctor your entire population, you are going to run into some trouble.

As for working with you, she pretty much said my opinion. It's not a perfect system. There's nothing perfect about it. It just sounds perfect. I do, in fact, try to think up solutions to questions I have, and I even make assumptions occasionally that those solutions would be used. But a lot of the time, those solutions would require the system... Not being your system. For instance, you could have passcards that people log hours into, and once they've worked a certain amount they can get certain things. But that doesn't work right, because it's essentially a credit card with money on it, meaning that the system no longer runs on paper money but still works on what is essentially digital money.

And by the way, don't insult Kate's intelligence by implying that she just isn't smart enough to grasp your idea, and that's the only reason she doesn't agree. We grasp it fine. We just don't have our heads in the clouds about it, and we see the problems which you continuously fail to address adequately. You just keep repeating the same admittedly pretty idea, and act like it takes care of everything when it doesn't.

And how come you thank Peer for expressing an opinion you agree with, but you expect us to form our opinion to yours? Which, by the way, he wasn't exactly agreeing with you. He was saying that Communism/Socialism has it's strong points, and Capitalism has it's strong points. He has stated elsewhere, if I'm not mistaken, that a combination of both is what has been proven to work best.

The problem here is he was responding to Zin. You and Zin have different societies in mind, so when he responds to her ideas, it doesn't necessarily apply to yours, and vice versa.

Because I thought "Hey, I have a degree in civil engineering just gathering dust. Maybe I should use it for something." and then I got a job?

Also; the pay is slightly better. Like 220K a year better.

Why? I was just telling you that I found those jobs enjoyable, not that divine is necessarily right.

That's not quite what I'm suggesting. The point of communism was never to make everyone equally poor, but rather equally rich. What do you think taxes do? They take from those who can spare it and give to everyone, in the form of police, firefighters, libraries, etc.

Even if you raised taxes, no one's taking away what you worked hard for. Who works hard enough to earn $100 million a year?? They can keep the $1 million they *might* have worked hard enough to earn, and still live like a pig in slop. Meanwhile, a few thousand kids are guaranteed a top-notch education for free, so one day they can get a job and work hard to live like a pig in slop.

Also, as for menial jobs and job satisfaction:

I'm a pharmacy technician. I basically do all the grunt work around the pharmacy. I've had this job for a year, and in a few months I'm going to pharmacy school to be a pharmacist who earns five times as much for 1/5th the manual labour.

I work alongside techs who have had the same grunt work job for decades. For whatever reason, they have never made the next step to becoming a pharmacist. Some are too dumb and/or too lazy for pharmacy school, but some just aren't interested in it, and they're okay with their job as it is. Some people would just rather do what are considered "low-level" jobs.

And thus even if they're given the opportunity to take "high-level" ones, they won't. You'll still have a division of labour, AND people will be much more inclined to take blue-collar jobs if they're paid fairly for it. Meaning none of this skimping on health care, no forced overtime, no dodging worker's comp if they're injured. Maternity leave so women don't feel the need to abort any pregnancies they get.

He needs to stalk you the way I do... ninja

I do have a question though, because I'm an idiot.

What's the difference between communism and socialism? Because Zin, what you're suggesting sounds a lot like what I was taught socialism is, but I only had a basic political science education in highschool.

Is it you who keeps stealing my underwear?! crying