I don’t know where to start. Communism isn’t monolithic so in practice how things work depends on the specific system of communism. In general if the state doesn’t control the land and what is produced by the land it probably isn’t true communism. That said, as another general rule, if you losses the legal right to change the name of a business you are probably not a worker but are probably a small business owner. So if a big company owns 50 farms and hires people to plant and tend and harvest those but the company owns what the land produces- you’re probably a worker. If you are growing it yourself and you get to keep the money from what comes out of the ground you’re a small business owner- most likely.
Now, pointing out the tractors cost $200k+ is somewhat daft. Farm equipment can be expensive. For a large farm the seeds and materials for a single harvest can be expensive too. You could easily have a million dollars in the ground- but you don’t get the money back until a successful harvest and sale. If your million dollars in materials turns into $1.5 million when you harvest, if you want to work next season you’ll have to turn around and buy another million in supplies (or more of prices went up…) and then there are all the other bills, equipment, upkeep, rainy day savings… so we are talking about potentially huge sums of money but we aren’t always talking about huge profits. If a farmer is a small business then the business owns the tractor. That’s not quite the same as a farmer owning a Ferrari. The Tractor is something they need to be able to conduct their livelihood. A kids party entertainer making $100 a gig might have thousands of dollars in props or costumes for work.
That’s not the same things as just walking around in designer labels to show off. So I’m not really sure what relevance it has that farmers own expensive things, large scale farming tends to be an expensive business. Consider how can just one tractor be a quarter of a million dollars but an entire bag of potatoes is maybe $5, and the truckers and the store and distributors and all these people in between need a profit too. How much do you think that farmer made off that bag of potatoes…?
But the response is equally daffy. In communism A worker does not own the means of production. COLLECTIVELY all own the means to production. In other words, unless me, and you, and everyone else shared ownership and has a say on these farms, this isn’t an example of “workers owning the means of production and leveraging it against the state.” These are private owner/operators acting as what is known as a “special interest group,” a group of people with a shared and specific interest who are using their capital power as leverage to attempt to influence public policy in their favor.
That isn’t an inherently bad thing and I’m neither supporting or condemning the actions or cause of these individuals at this time- but to frame this as an issue of workers seizing the means of production to rise collectively is false. If all the private practice owning lawyers rose up and took control of the country would that be a workers revolution? Most people wouldn’t see it that way. Most people wouldn't say: “hurray! The private practice Doctors have all risen up and now the working man has their victory!” When the CEO’s storm the capital and demand better for themselves, will the workers rejoice that finally their day has come? It’s a silly idea. If you have an employee you aren’t a “worker” and if you’re self employed you are you’re own employee the same as you are your own boss.
Five comments...but all are by "guest" as part of one long comment. So, commenting here on that to break up the monopoly. Also, like all the many many other multi-comment novellas by guest, TL;DR.
Use name checks out lol
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Okay, that's kinda mean and I am sure you have wonderful aspects to your personality. Please keep toxic commentary like this to yourself though.
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Okay, that's kinda mean and I am sure you have wonderful aspects to your personality. Please keep toxic commentary like this to yourself though.