What happens if someone refuses to do any chores in a shared household? There are already plenty of situations where people do work for free because it's in your own interests. In groups like households people take turns taking out the bins and cleaning. In a communist society people will take turns doing the necessary work. If someone refuses, maybe something is wrong in their life, and they need help. At the end of the day, there's no economic coercion in a classless society. If one in a million people don't work for no understandable reason (disability, depression, personal issues, etc) then let them. What else are you going to do? Work or starve? Incarceration? The point of the universal emancipation that communism brings is to do away with those evils.
Asklemmy
A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions
If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!
- Open-ended question
- Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
- Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
- Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
- An actual topic of discussion
Looking for support?
Looking for a community?
- Lemmyverse: community search
- sub.rehab: maps old subreddits to fediverse options, marks official as such
- !lemmy411@lemmy.ca: a community for finding communities
~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de~
Socialism != Communism
"Socialism" is used in a variety of ways. Inferring from OP's question it seems like they are asking about a socialist mode of production, ie communism.
Drugs and alcohol and other non-necessities generally are not free. So I am not sure how you’d fund those things or the partying, depending what that means to you.
But if you choose to do that nothing would happen, society would support the costs of you having safe (although likely fairly frugal) housing, sufficient food, and medical care. There are already people who live that way but without the food, housing, or care; they may resort to crime to meet their needs (negative affect on society) or may just have such poor health that they require much more expensive care (already at the cost of taxpayer in capitalistic society) than they would have if they’d been able to access care before it became a dire emergency.
Research generally indicates that capitalist societies already pay more to address the consequences of poverty than it would cost to provide those people with their basic needs in the first place.
Life is more complex. I do not live in a society that ia that socialiatic. I worked 26 years then said FU and probably will not work again. Money is more or less meaningless now. How is that different?
On the otherhand, my grad school was 100% paid but I also worked hard. I did not do it to make money nor did I need to work to pay for it.
Just pointing out money is less of a motivator then one might think.
I don't know if you're looking for something historical, but in the GDR you'd be thrown in prison. Refusing to work was considered asocial behavior.
Relevant part translated:
Section 249. Impairment of public order and safety through antisocial behavior.
(1) Anyone who impairs the social coexistence of citizens or public order and safety by shirking regular employment out of aversion to work, although capable of working, shall be punished with a suspended sentence, imprisonment, or a term of imprisonment of up to two years.
What's your definition or idea of a "socialist economy"?
Set it up so those that don't work also don't get enough money to do those fun things.
Enough to not die, but not enough to live.
You get disappeared by the secret police.