Communist America

I recently wrote a piece arguing that the United States, because of the existence of property taxes of various kinds, cannot be understood to have private property and to therefore have a free market system but, rather, should be understood to be a form of socialism I’m calling stewardship socialism. But then, someone on Facebook suggested that I was describing communism. And I think they are right.

The United States is a democratic republic. We understand our government to be “We the People.” That being the case, the government is us, and we are the government. What the government owns, we own, collectively.

I argued that with property taxes, including income taxes, that means no individual actually owns whatever property they have, since the government can take that property away through taxes and if you refuse to pay those taxes. That has been the case since 1913. Since we are the government, individuals are given stewardship over parts of the people’s property, and the people can take that stewardship away if the individuals do not live up to their contracts. Failure to pay taxes is such a violation.

Since all land is communally owned through the government of the people, that means we have formal communism, since 1913.

If we go through the 10 Goals of the Communists from The Communist Manifesto, we can see that we have what Marx and Engels described.

1. Abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to public purposes.

As we have seen, that happened with the ability of the government to tax any and all property. That tax is a rent on land, and those taxes are used for public purposes. So, goal #1 achieved.

2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.

It has been heavier in the past, but we certainly have an income tax, and it is certainly progressive/graduated.

3. Abolition of all rights of inheritance.

Not quite there, though inheritance taxes do make this literal in many cases.

4. Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels.

The first group is rendered safe by our more liberal attitude toward emigrants. The latter is generally true, depending on how broadly we understand “rebels.” Truly rebellious individuals do tend to end up in prison, with their land lost. We have civil forfeiture laws.

5. Centralizaton of credit in the hands of the State, by means of a national bank with State capital and an exclusive monopoly.

This we have with our Federal Reserve. Credit and capital are partially decentralized, but remember that all money and property are in fact centrally owned, while decisions are made by stewards.

6. Centralization of the means of communication and transport in the hands of the State.

Technically true since property is owned by the people through the State. Technically true since the media mostly support anything the government does and question little if anything. Technically breaking down to some degree because of the internet (Uber is breaking this down, too).

This point actually raises the interesting question of what is meant by “centralization.” After all, communism is supposed to be a communal system with an eventual abolition of the State itself. Does the seeming breakdown of centralization because of the internet indicate this is happening? Also, what is simultaneously more centralized and decentralized both than the internet?

7.Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the State; the bringing into cultivation of waste-lands, and the improvement of the soil generally in accordance with a common plan.

Again, property taxes means the government actually owns all property, including the factories and instruments of production. In some cases, the government has lifted the veil and seized control of certain firms, then lowered it by allowing new stewardship.

The new environmentalism has come around to supporting the continued existence of “waste-lands,” but there was a push throughout the 20th century to “improve the soil” through new ways of farming.

8. Equal liability of all to labor. Establishment of industrial armies, especially for agriculture.

The latter didn’t take place because of technological innovations. Can’t fault Marx for not seeing how technology would transform agricultural labor into something like 1% of all labor. We certainly did have industrial armies through the 20th century, but again, the structure of the economy has changed. Still, labor does manage to feel like military service . . .

9. Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual abolition of the distinction between town and country, by a more equable distribution of the population over the country.

Okay, surely even the most die-hard Marxists think this one is silly. Especially with the embracing of environmentalism. City living is better for the environment as a whole, and it turns out that people live best in cities overall.

10. Free education for all children in public schools. Abolition of children’s factory labor in its present form. Combination of education with industrial production, etc., etc.

Done and done and done.

In other words, we have communism, if achieving the goals of the communists is the measure of communism. We’ve adopted them all, except 9, but I don’t think anyone would argue that that’s really a main tenet of communism anyway. Further, the United States never had classes in the European sense of the term, anyway.

The United States is, therefore, since 1913, a communist country. We did it slowly, silently, but we did it. But what we have is the State version of it, which is what Marx predicted would take place. If you don’t like what we have, you don’t like Marx’s system. Or, at least, the State version of it. After all, as Marx and Engels argued,

“Political power, properly so called, is merely the organized power of one class for oppressing another.”

So long as there is political power of any sort, we will have one class oppressing another. The ruling class and the bureaucratic class, in this case. At this point, we can only hope that the internet will do the job of sweeping away this political power, and the class of oppressors we necessarily find in those in government.

So there you have it. The United States, because it is a democratic government in which the government owns all property and determined who gets what and how much through as system of stewardship, is in fact a communist country, since all land is communally owned, and the goals of the communists have been achieved.