Chapter 2: SKETCH OF COMMUNIST SOCIETY -- PRODUCTION
Commodities production is almost abolished in communist society. How will our lives change as a result? How will production activities be carried out in a communist society?
1. There is no commodities production.
1.1. Not profit pursuit but social cooperation
Marx writes in his famous book 1 of Capital, “The wealth of a society in which the capitalist mode of production is dominant appears as a gigantic collection of commodities, each of which appears as the basic form of that wealth.” This statement accurately describes the characteristics of capitalist society.
It is true that the leading role in capitalist society is not humans, but commodities. As is well known, all kinds of goods and services are produced and sold as commodities (merchandise), from breads to mobile phones, cars, houses, electricity, water, gas, medical care, welfare, and even sex services, and human beings depend heavily on commodities. It is the reality of capitalist society.
In contrast, in a communist society, goods and services are not produced as commodities. This is because, as mentioned in the previous chapter, communism is a society of social cooperation, that is, a society of mutual help.
The production of goods and services in the form of commodities is, in the first place, done for the capitalists to produce the commodities in order to sell them and convert them into money and accumulate wealth, and the practice is essentially a commercial activity.
However, the element of helping each other is also recognized in commercial activities. For example, the capitalists who produce and sell automobiles do so for others who want cars, while the capitalists who manufacture and deliver automobile parts supply them for the car manufacturers. On the other hand, the employees working for these capitalists provide labor for the capitalists, and in return the capitalists pay wages to support the workers' livelihoods.
Nevertheless, within the capitalist production cycle, people are usually unaware of these altruistic mutual aid relationships, and are only conscious of the commodities and money that flow through the cycle. In other words, capitalist society is primarily a society of profit-seeking = making money, and has the characteristic of showing the element of social cooperation = mutual help as a secondary.
In that sense, it can be said that a communist society simply brings out the element of social cooperation that is only secondary in a capitalist society. What will happen as a result?
1.2. Society where everything is free of charge
The most important change is that all goods and services will be produced and supplied not as commodities, but as "things themselves" without exchange value, and as a result, they will all be available for free.
For modern people, this would be a drastic change worthy of being called a cultural revolution. We, who need money as a means of exchange to buy even a single bread, may even feel guilty about being able to buy everything for free.
If you are a skeptical person, you may be concerned that this would lead to a controlled rationing of the supply of goods and services. Certainly, with regard to daily necessities, as will be discussed later, it is necessary to limit the number of purchases in order to prevent monopolization and a rush of demand, and to that extent it will be a kind of rationing system.
Even under capitalism, if there is a shortage of goods due to a rapid increase in demand, measures are necessary to prevent to be out of stock, such as limiting the quantity of goods purchased. So it can be said that this is only a relative difference.
When it comes to things like private cars, for example, under communism, the uniform mass production system will change to individual order production by consumers, and as a result, it will be possible to create a craftsman-like production system according to the type, color, and design that the consumer prefers.
On the other hand, commercial vehicles that are used by various offices and transportation facilities are mass-produced according to the economic plan described later, and are also delivered and updated free of charge.
1.3. A question on civilizational history
Thus under the communist system of production, the goods and services produced are stripped of their commodity form and are no longer offered for monetary exchange, even if the custom of bartering between individuals will remain. Commerce will cease to exist and commercial activity in principle will cease to exist. Instead, a system of gigantic social cooperation, so to speak, emerges.
Here, the following civilizational history question may be raised. Although commerce is an activity that humankind has continued diligently since prehistoric times before capitalism, is it possible to artificially abolish it completely?
Perhaps this question is more related to the perspective of "material civilization" that forms the civilization-historical substratum of capitalism, as posed by Fernand Braudel rather than by karl Marx. This paper does not have the space to tackle this far-reaching question head-on, but one thing that I can say is that the answer to this question will depend on the fundamental understanding of ecological sustainability, which is the condition for the existence of human society.
What is symbolized by capitalism is a society based on a material civilization that regards wealth as the highest value. In such a society, having-more or luxury becomes the ideal life. However, it is clear that such a society is no longer compatible with environmental sustainability.
On the other hand, there could be a society in which the ideal life is not about having more or luxury, but about being-better, that is, sufficiency. However, even in such a society, material production activities are indispensable to maintain human society, so it is unlikely that material civilization will be completely abandoned. However, the new material civilization to come will no longer be primarily about the pursuit of wealth.
