had been thinking about socialism vs. communism

[m_d_h]

I did post about this question before in my LJ, but I've had more time to ponder it on my own without trying to read through endless treatments of the two systems for comparison.  Just based on my own prior knowledge, how would I define these terms?

My definition of socialism:  Socialism is not a binary, either/or, but a relative concept.  The extent of socialism is measured by the proportion of economic activity that is performed by, controlled by, or distributed by the government.  Such as, government ownership of the means of production, government taxes on income and wealth, government distribution of benefits.  There's no such thing as 100% socialism or 100% capitalism, in every society there's always a mixture of private income and government income, private wealth and government wealth, but if your GDP is at least 50% government spending then you're mostly socialist.

My definition of communism:  A type of ideal society in which there is no private property beyond a reasonable amount held for personal use (i.e., a modest home, vehicle, furniture, clothing, entertainment, personal effects); no social classes in which some people hold significantly more wealth, income, or power than others; and GDP is distributed as equally or fairly as possible among all the people, with allowances made for those who need additional care, and those who take greater physical risks in their employment.

I modify this definition of communism to idealize green communism:  A type of communism in which total global, regional, and local human population & productivity are kept within whatever limits are required for long-term ecological sustainability.

One implication of this definition of green communism is restrictions on human reproduction.  We cannot just let everybody decide for themselves how many children they have, if we are to keep total human population within sustainable limits.  This is something I've been thinking about over the past couple weeks, because it may strike some people as even more radical than my "shrink & share" slogan about the economy.  Feminists have campaigned for reproductive freedom, but from the other end of the spectrum -- freedom to avoid procreation.  Now I'm thinking about telling people they cannot have more children than are allocated to them -- similar to China's outdated "one child policy"?  Hmmm.

Of course, this is all a fantasy in my head, written down in my journal.  I'm still pondering what to do about all this idealistic thinking about green communism.

Comments

[anais_pf]

I suppose we could allot each woman two children, and then they could acquire the right to more children from other women who have decided not to have children -- like carbon offsetting works. The problem always is, what do you do when there is an unauthorized third pregnancy? Forced abortion or infanticide seems a bit harsh. Maybe we can just tax the hell out of women who have more than two children.

And of course it's probably impossible to regulate the number of children that MEN father. :/

[m_d_h]

Enforcement is always the underlying issue with any law or regulation, but I can see how enforcement is especially tricky where sexual activity and fetuses are involved. Imagine the authorities don't catch the unauthorized birth until the child is five years old -- do we execute such unauthorized children? Not under my leadership. No death penalty in the country of Bugistan. I'd bring back spanking, however, would definitely spank the parents on Facebook Live ;-) Would you sterilize people who broke the birthright laws? That seems fair. One strike and your tubes are tied.

I think with our current overpopulation the quota would be far lower than two per woman (or one per person). I'm thinking a billion humans would be the initial goal, which would require a birthright lottery. One of each eight people currently alive as of 1/1/2021 would receive a birthright ticket, and sure they could give it away or sell it if they won't/can't use it themselves. Each live birth would consume one birthright ticket. Then each authorized newborn would receive one birthright ticket to keep us at a billion.

thinkinking anachist

[erisreg]

so i'll hold back some on political talk,..

but i don't think humans need to police themselves other than personally,..

Re: thinkinking anachist

[m_d_h]

I often agree with anarchists :-) But right now I'm just thinking through what Green Communism would mean and what it would take. Kind of a thought experiment.