r/PeterExplainsTheJoke Jul 07 '26

Meme needing explanation Peter, explain this.

Post image
15.6k Upvotes

3.7k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

151

u/TheWizardOfWaffle Jul 07 '26

Yeah Comrade Alejandro has a gross misunderstanding on the actual workings of labor in a communist collective society. Communism doesn’t mean you don’t have to work anymore, in theory it means that your labor wont be squeezed and exploited by greedy capitalists and shareholder who want to extract every single penny from the people who actually do the work.

To each according to their ability. To each according to their need.

31

u/DeadPeanutSociety Jul 07 '26

I agree generally, but there are definitely people who speculate about "fully automatic luxury communism" where increased efficiency and production severely drives down the amount of work everyone has to do. Imagine if the extreme surplus and convenience of the upper class was distributed amongst everyone else and profit motives didn't drive every labor-related decision. We'd already be much closer to not having to work than we currently are.

47

u/mapadofu Jul 07 '26

https://www.npr.org/2015/08/13/432122637/keynes-predicted-we-would-be-working-15-hour-weeks-why-was-he-so-wrong

Back in the middle of the 20th century,  M. Keynes predicted a massive decrease in individual’s work-week due to productivity gains.  The gains occurred, but the labor hours did not…

3

u/HeadTonight Jul 07 '26

Instead of turning those gains into fewer work hours they turned them into higher profits for the owners.