Chapter 2: SKETCH OF COMMUNIST SOCIETY -- PRODUCTION
2. People are freed from reign of money.
2.1. Liberation from exchange value
In the previous section, we argued that one of the characteristics of a communist society is that it does not produce commodities. In modern society, where commodity exchange is almost without exception converging on money exchange, the fact that commodities are no longer produced is almost synonymous with the abolition of the monetary system.
Before you are surprised again, let us think about what it means to abolish the monetary system. First, it means that we are freed from the notion of exchange value.
For example, suppose you bought a computer that costs $1,000. In this case, the computer is given an exchange value equivalent to $1,000, but this is not the same as whether the performance (usage value) of the personal computer is truly worth $1,000. It is a problem. Possively the computer is a defective product that breaks down frequently.
If the monetary system were to be abolished, the computer would no longer have a monetary value (price), but would be evaluated directly based on its performance. This is a use-value centric world.
Of course, even in a capitalist society, the use value is not completely ignored. A product with no use value worthy of the exchange value of $1,000 will not sell, and if you knowingly sell a defective product with no use value, you will be charged with fraud. Nevertheless, in capitalism, exchange value takes precedence over use value, and if we want to have the use value of the target commodity, we are required to exchange it for money equivalent to the exchange value. This is a world centered on exchange value.
In a society where a commodity economy has permeated every aspect, the purchase of any goods or services requires money equivalent to the exchange value. If you have no money, you can not even afford to buy a single bread, starving to death. This unavoidable consequence is accepted, although it is lamented. On the other hand, everything in this world depends on money, and it is also a fascinating world where you can buy anything with money.
Also, there has been an incessant stream of people who are willing to commit criminal acts for money, and money is involved in some form in most crimes, including property crimes such as theft, robbery, and fraud, as well as personal crimes such as murder. This is the capitalist state of affairs.
2.2. Freedom from reign of money
Since the system of money, which is representing exchange value, is not democratic in its nature, the money economy is a kind of despotic system. Such "monetary tyranny" is most clearly manifested in the field of finance.
Financial capital, which is the capital embodiment of money itself, plays the role of the general designer of the entire capitalist economy through loans and investments. On the other hand, the tyranny due to such a commanding role has been seen throughout the history of capitalism, and its undisciplined or sometimes uncontrollable behavior has often triggered serious economic crises.
In the financial crisis that triggered the Great Recession in 2008, people were unable to control the complex financial system that humans created themselves, and on the contrary, humans were dominated by the monstrous financial system and could be destroyed, just like Frankenstein.
The abolition of the monetary system guarantees liberation from "monetary tyranny" in that it completely dismantles financial capital centered on commercial banks.
This will be good news for many people not only in terms of liberation from the economic crisis caused by finance, but also in terms of liberation from debt as a more daily benefits. Because debt is, without a doubt, the most terrifying form of money that leads to bankruptcy for individuals, corporations and even public sectors like states and local governments.
Debt is terrifying because it takes the legal form of a claim and controls the debtor as the supreme power of money that can be exercised both as a legal power (court enforcement) and also as an illegal force (violent debt collection). Wouldn't it be fair to say that global liberation from such terrible power would serve the common good of mankind?
2.3. Difference between communism and socialism
It may safely be said that the difference between communism and socialism, which are often confused even today, is the existence or nonexistence of a monetary system.
In the past, socialism was advertised as aiming for an “equal, classless society.” But as long as the monetary system is maintained, complete equalization of income and assets under it is utterly impossible because money by its very nature never spreads evenly—the monetary system is not democratic in that sense.
Therefore, "socialism" without abolishing the monetary system will not be able to eradicate class society. Even in the former Soviet Union, the leader of socialism in the 20th century, the often misunderstood "perfect equality" was not achieved at all.
A wage system had been established, and various perks (including bribery) based on the Communist Party's bureaucratic privileges had created a disparity in living standards, including income disparities, between ordinary workers and Communist Party bureaucrats. It would not be an exaggeration to say that the reality was, simply put, a "socialist class society."
Therefore, it is unreasonable to analyze that such "equality" was the reason why the former Soviet system lost its vitality and competitiveness and was defeated by the capitalist camp, after misidentifying the former Soviet society as a "completely equal society."
At the same time, it is also unreasonable to equate or confuse communism, in which the monetary system, or more precisely, the commodity-money exchange economy, is abolished, with socialism, in which it is still preserved.
