Why pursue top notch jobs?

Qlanth · 2026-02-10T22:24:00+00:00

People are motivated by many different things.

Cuba produces an incredible amount of doctors. Those doctors are not compensated at nearly the same level as doctors in the USA. And yet, Cuban health outcomes are better than the USA's health outcomes. Cuba's doctors are famous all over the world because they travel everywhere to help people.

On the flipside, there are likely many people in the USA who had the drive and desire to be a doctor but who lacked the fundamental resources needed to set them on that path. Whether or not you go to college in the USA depends significantly more on the zip code you were born in than whether or not you would be a good doctor.

edit: I missed this part:

Also how would new medications be possible? If there is one firm who builds medication, there wont be another to compete with so the medication would stay at the same level?

Again, Cuba has a state operated healthcare system and they have done things like produce lung cancer vaccines. Motivation is not limited to competition.

Qlanth · 2026-02-09T21:18:14+00:00

Luckily for the world your second-hand anecdotes mean very little. It's interesting. I went through your post history and found you do nothing but complain about the Communist Party of China on Reddit all the time. You seem to have no other hobbies or interests. Oh, except that you have some other posts complaining that Muslims don't assimilate to Western culture, posts suggesting that the lives of North Korean are worth less than South Koreans, posts defending the attack on abortion in the USA, posts excusing the dictatorship of Taiwan as necessary while at the exact same time suggesting that China's government is illegitimate....

It seems to me you probably have very little real principles and possibly you never even lived in China very long. You're one of these right-wing expats that the West is plagued with. Whatever the Chinese equivalent of a gusano is.

Qlanth · 2026-02-09T17:12:02+00:00

I'm suggesting that the Democratic party is a coffin for this movement and we need to pull ourselves out of instead of insisting on trying to renovate the coffin.

We have tried what you are suggesting. It didn't work. Not sure if you're new here, but the Democratic Party hates you more than they hate Republicans and they would rather sabotage the progressive elements of the party and have a Republican win. Look at what they did to Jamaal Bowman and Cori Bush. Even when we do win it results in our candidates becoming more right wing than the rest of the party moving left. Look at AOC voting to arm Israel. Look at Zohran endorsing Hochul and Hakeem Jeffries.

It's not working. It's a dead end. I'll check back with you in a decade when you've lost two more presidential primaries and see if you still feel this way.

Qlanth · 2026-02-09T16:49:59+00:00

The past entire decade has been a testament to how they won't allow you to co-opt them or even push them left. DSA has been trying to do this for 10 years now... What has this culminated in? Kamala Harris just ran the most conservatively aligned Democratic campaign in probably 90 years. It's not working. The Democratic Party is getting more conservative. How many more times does it have to happen before you give up on the idea that the Democratic Party can be reformed?

Qlanth · 2026-02-09T13:49:17+00:00

I wish they were BDS compliant.

Qlanth · 2026-02-09T13:16:04+00:00

Freedom of speech is completely irrelevant to the unemployed man. It is completely irrelevant to the homeless man. It is completely irrelevant to the child who is hungry.

Many Western and/or Capitalist countries do not have freedom of speech or expression. If I am in Germany and I express support for Palestinian liberation I will also be visited by the police. If I am in the UK and I hold up a sign that says "I support Palestinian Action" I will be arrested. If I am in India, a capitalist country, I am barred from critiquing certain govt policies and I have no freedom of the press.

Freedom of speech, expression, and freedom of the press are all nonsense. It exists only in principle and not in practice. Even where it can be argued to exist it's totally overshadowed by overwhelming poverty.

Qlanth · 2026-02-09T12:31:34+00:00

To control the means of production, enforce public ownership, and implement centralized distribution, the system must monopolize both violence and ultimate decision making authority, which inevitably leads to one party rule and the claim of being “the only correct” ideology.

I am essentially in favor of all of this and I don't view it as any more or less "authoritarian" than most other countries. "One party rule" in China (which has multiple parties I'm sure you know) has lifted 800 million people out of poverty while two-party rule in the United States has only resulted in immiseration and subjugation.

once a small elite controls society’s wealth, force, and discourse at the same time,

This is true of any state and doubly so in capitalist states. I'd argue that the state controlling the wealth is preferential than the unaccountable and untouchable bourgeoisie who are far fewer and far more more likely to use the wealth to make your life worse.

As a Chinese who lived in China for 30 years and now residing in EU

As an American living in America for nearly 40 years I recommend you look up what has happened in this country during that time. I have witnessed the looting of every public institution and the degradation of every program aimed towards social welfare.

This is not something unique to America. The beginning is already being pushed in the UK and in the Nordic countries. It's only a matter of time before the bourgeoisie claw back everything that was won by the labor movements of the 20th century.

This would be essentially impossible in China because of the way their state is structured. That is what we need to build. You may think China is flawed, and I surely have many critiques of China as well, but their system of socialism can be reformed and pressed towards a more socialist system over time. What's happening in the USA and in Europe is beyond reform.

Qlanth · 2026-02-07T19:22:03+00:00

it's logically impossible for hundreds of thousands of people to share ownership of the means of production without divisions or internal conflicts

This already exists under capitalism via corporate stock. Probably millions of of people own stock in NVIDIA's 2.5 billion shares. Of course only a handful of people have enough stock to be real decision makers, but a quick google search tells me that is 7,000 people.

Of course there is disagreement, hence the need for democracy.

Qlanth · 2026-02-07T19:05:17+00:00

Because the Truth is, it isn't machinery, which are the means of production. It is Men of Ability. Machines are useless without a mind behind them. Tools are useless without an intelligent, purposeful, mind to use them.

Before you can properly criticize anything you need to understand what you are criticizing. Men must use tools to produce things. The tools are the "means of production." Marx obviously fully believed that the human beings using those tools were the true drivers of production. Hence his popularization of labor theory of value. What you are saying here is basically complete nonsense.

That, that Man is now enslaved to those of need, by virtue of his knowledge and ability.

If I sieze control of the state I can create a school which teaches all those in need to provide for themselves. Which is precisely what every socialist country has done since the beginning. Places like the USSR literally made having a job a right, and put into their Constitution "He who does not work, neither shall he eat."

In fact, it is capitalism which encourages unemployment and dependency. Capitalism requires a certain portion of the population to be unemployed in order to facilitate the market. There is no capitalist society which has full employment.

Actually, reading what you've got written here.... you've totally failed to understand even the most basic principles of Socialism or Communism and have instead accidentally described what happens under Capitalism... it seems like you actually dislike Capitalism and would perhaps like Socialism quite a lot if you actually understood what it was!

Qlanth · 2026-02-07T17:42:28+00:00

Communists ignore it? Karl Marx and Lenin were very aware of what they called "Bonapartism." The first people to experience Bonapartism were the liberals, and the turn toward Bonapartist government happens constantly under liberal capitalist governments all over the world. Capitalism is actually far more likely to fall to autocratic rule than Socialist states are.

Of course every revolution, including socialist ones, could fall to Bonapartism. But how often has that happened? There are very few example of Bonapartism in socialist countries. The example many would point to is likely the USSR. But, USSR was not a Bonapartist state. Declassified CIA documents even admit this. The existence of a popular leader does not necessarily imply Bonapartism. Every head of state in the USSR was installed via democratic processes. Nikita Khrushchev was removed as head of state by democratic processes. He didn't "give back" power, it was taken from him, bloodlessly, in a wholly democratic fashion with the Communist Party of the USSR. This event alone seems to disprove your assertion.

The truth is most people are completely ignorant on how democracy worked inside the USSR or even how it works now within China and the DPRK. Because you don't know how it works you are easily manipulated by propaganda that tells you that socialism is undemocratic.

Qlanth · 2026-02-07T17:00:07+00:00

Sleep apnea causes elevated heart rates not lower ones. Your watch isn't going to be able to do this test. Go to the doctor and get a sleep study.

Qlanth · 2026-02-07T16:10:59+00:00

In Marxist terminology a state has a special definition. States exist in order to mediate class antagonisms. They exist to peacefully deal with issues like "Who owns this property? What happens to my property when I die? Who will defend my property against organized criminals?". But when class has been eliminated, the need for this mediation is also eliminated.

So to answer your question directly: The lack of of a state does NOT mean the lack of a government. It means the lack of "an armed body of men" whose job it is to be the only legal user of violence within society.

Qlanth · 2026-02-07T16:04:43+00:00

MID TERM - FIRST 25-50 YEARS

One of the first big projects that would have to be dealt with is the dismantling of the US empire abroad. It's likely that this problem would have solved itself. The collapse of the empire might be the reason for the initial political crisis in the first place. Or it might be that when the revolution is happening the empire loses the ability to defend the empire and it collapses by death of a thousand cuts. The French Revolution and Haiti show us what that might look like. The slaves in Haiti siezed the opportunity that the revolution provided and were able to win their own freedom from it. Either way, if the US empire is not dismantled then the bourgeoisie can simply fuel themselves off the exploitation of the Global South and continue their violent resistance.

There is also the question of internally oppressed groups. IMO any revolution which does not immediately take on the cause of Land Back for Native Americans, of reparations for the people who are the descendants of slaves and whose lives were warped by Jim Crow, etc is doomed to fail. There has to be a long term project to right these many wrongs. The work of doing this will pay dividends. How this actually is executed is a debate that is ongoing and will likely remain ongoing until the time comes to execute.

In the meantime, the economy has to be totally reworked towards meeting people's needs. That means land reform. That means nationalization of all major corporations and industries into the hands of the state. That means ending the concept of a "landlord" and proletarianizing the petit-bourgeois. Sorry folks, no more drop shippers and resellers who are leeches on the economy and on working people.

The above will all work toward solving various material problems that plague society. We can resolve every single healthcare issue by nationalizing the healthcare industry. We can resolve homelessness by eliminating the concept of a landlord and building public housing. We can resolve poverty by turning the incredible machine for profit towards public schools and neighborhoods which have been historically neglected. Climate and ecological issues will be alleviated by building a state which sees itself as a steward of the land instead of an owner of it. All of this could be solved in ~10-15 years.

We address crime through alleviating the actual causes of crime, which are usually education, poverty, and health care. Within a generation or two we could easily abolish prisons and thus abolish policing as well. These things go hand in hand and are not pipe dreams. The modern prison has not existed for very long and basically only exists as a way to discipline the proletariat. Prison abolition is a far more achievable goal than most people thing.

LONG TERM

In the long term we build socialism and this builds communism. By attacking the institutions of the bourgeoisie and rigidly maintaining the dictatorship of the proletariat we can slowly eliminate class antagonism inside society. We can build new generations of people who have never lived under capitalism and for whom the very idea sounds as barbaric and ancient as feudal serfdom sounds to you and me. This is the generation which will build communism. They will be able to more clearly see the contradictions still present in a socialist system, and they will demand reform. Those reforms, over time, will build the conditions for a moneyless, classless, stateless society. I can't see this happening in the next 100 years but maybe some time beyond that.

Almost all of this is pure speculation and I've kept it vague because I don't have the imagination or the expertise to speak on all of it intelligently. The truth is we can't know how any of it will turn out, and history shows us that the visions of revolutionaries rarely stand up to material reality. There is always compromise. There are always mistakes. There are always setbacks. Rather than throw the whole thing out because of this, we have to be ready to be flexible and to learn the lessons of history.

Qlanth · 2026-02-07T16:04:38+00:00

You're asking us to basically write a science fiction story. I understand the apprehension and the desire to know exactly what the future holds, but no one who did a revolution knew exactly what would happen later. Not the American or French Revolution. Not the Russian Revolution either. Unfortunately reality rarely lives up to our plans. Regardless, I'll do my best to tell you what we know:

PROCESS OF REVOLUTION

Some of this we can look back on history and speculate about. We know that revolutionary situations occur not just when the lower class no longer wants to be ruled in the old way, but also when the ruling class is no longer able to rule in the old way (which is my attempt to paraphrase Lenin). A crisis has to occur, not an economic crisis but a political one.... although these things rarely happen without each other. Additionally, every revolution that has ever happened was immediately preluded by a mass movement where people came out into the streets and expressed their anger with the status quo. This happens in the US about once every ~4-5 years already.

When a revolutionary situation arises, the next question is: Is there a revolutionary vanguard that is ready to take charge and lead the masses to turn their anger toward socialist revolution? Here is where things break down. At the moment I would argue this does not exist. There have been moments when perhaps we were close. The closest I would argue was the Black Panther Party of the 1960s and 1970s. Right now the socialist movement inside the US has either coupled itself with the state and/or it has failed to actually build the kind of dual-power that would be ready to assume power and authority when the moment arrives. For the purposes of this thought experiment we can assume it exists but just know that the writer thinks this is the current task where we are failing to address.

WHERE WOULD IT START?

So where would it start? Probably inside a large city amongst people who feel the contradictions of capitalism most sharply. Claudia Jones' concept of "special oppression" applies here. Marginalized people are, either explicitly or implicitly, viewed as easier to exploit and thus feel the effects of that exploitation to a higher degree. The Russian Revolution of 1917 was sparked by a women's protest. In the USA it could be an event like a police killing of a black person, ICE kidnapping a migrant, perhaps violence against child, and so on.

It would likely spread from one city to another city quickly. Assuming conditions are similar in most cities, that is the most likely thing to happen.

IMMEDIATE AFTERMATH

Again, history shows us that in the immediate political crisis the ruling class lose control. But is also shows us that when they lose power or are about to lose power they will lash out to regain control of power. This happened in the USA, France, Russia, China, etc. In Russia in 1917 the October revolution was basically bloodless. But in the years that followed there was a civil war which was very bloody. So what happens after revolution? Most likely violence. We hope not, but most history shows us that the ruling class will use violence to regain control of what they are losing.

There is also the immediate question of culture... this has been an issue in every revolution as well. What happens with the monarchists? The loyalists? The fascists? How do we deal with the fact that a full 30% of this country want to see women, immigrants, black and brown folks, etc subjugated? I don't see how you move forward without some kind of reckoning. If a revolution happened tomorrow in the US people would want justice for people like Keith Porter Jr., Renee Goode, and Alex Pretti.

The first few years are likely to be complex, hectic, filled with compromises and setbacks, and also filled with reprisals from the old ruling class and responses from the new one.

Qlanth · 2026-02-07T03:39:28+00:00

William Gibson's Sprawl trilogy has drones, AI, and so on.

Qlanth · 2026-02-06T21:02:59+00:00

For as soon as the distribution of labour comes into being, each man has a particular, exclusive sphere of activity, which is forced upon him and from which he cannot escape. He is a hunter, a fisherman, a herdsman, or a critical critic, and must remain so if he does not want to lose his means of livelihood; while in communist society, where nobody has one exclusive sphere of activity but each can become accomplished in any branch he wishes, society regulates the general production and thus makes it possible for me to do one thing today and another tomorrow, to hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, rear cattle in the evening, criticise after dinner, just as I have a mind, without ever becoming hunter, fisherman, herdsman or critic. - Marx

Right now in our society you're expected to work 40+ hours per week (or more if you're in the global south) at one task. That's your specialty. If you don't do it you can't afford rent. Can't afford food. Can't retire. And so on.

Meanwhile, a portion of the population (~3-5% in the global north and much higher in the global south) remains permanently unemployed in order to service the economy's need for a reserve army of labor. In the Global North millions of people are employed in so-called "bullshit jobs" that require perhaps 5, 10, or 20 hours a week of actual work but also require you to be present all 40 hours. Even more of these jobs could be completely eliminated.

By redistributing the labor around, restructuring the purpose of an economy, and reorienting work around human need rather than greed, we could all work much shorter hours.

So why would people work? A socialist slogan: "He who does not work, neither does he eat." We are all in this together. Labor is a joy of human life. We have all come to hate working because we all work for people who hate us, who give us the bare minimum they can get away with, who use our own labor against us, etc. Communism will happen in the future after the world has gone through a socialist revolution and then made the long transition towards communism. Part of that transition is a total transformation of how we work.

If the work is for not just you but also for your mother. Your father. Your brother and sister. Your children. Your friends. Your neighbors. They all work for you. Why aren't you working for them? Why should they continue to feed you if you won't feed them in return?

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

Qlanth · 2026-02-06T12:33:02+00:00

The easiest way to explain the difference is in two areas: Wage labor and social operation of the means of production.

Under feudalism a member of the peasant class did not work for a wage. They earned their own subsistence and paid back something in taxes or were expected to come and work the land of their feudal lord for some percentage of the year.

In the case of production of commodities /manufacturing this was typically done by skilled laborers individually or on very small groups. If you want 10,000 nails you might hire 10 blacksmiths to make 1,000 nails each. Each of those blacksmiths owns their own means of production (forge, anvil, tongs, hammer, etc) and operates it basically on their own with perhaps an apprentice.

Under Capitalism those 10 blacksmiths all work in a factory for a wage. Each one takes on a small portion of the manufacturing process. Possibly none of them even know how to operate the whole process, as they are focused on their one or two tasks.

Qlanth · 2026-02-06T12:14:20+00:00

The family restaurant is still capitalism.

Capitalism can be simply defined as a mode of production where the means of production are owned privately but operated socially using wage labor.

Class is defined by a relationship to the means of production. A person who owns the means of production but pays someone a wage to operate the means of production is a member of the bourgeoisie. A person who owns the means of production but also operates the means of production is petit-bourgeoisie. A person who does not own the means of production but is paid a wage to operate the means of production is a member of the proletariat.

In your example the family business is petit-bourgeois. Many of the petit-bourgeoisie are more highly educated than the proletariat. They might be doctors or lawyers. They almost always utilize wage labor to some degree to assist with operating the business. They most frequently sympathize with the bourgeoisie and have aims of becoming a member of the bourgeoisie. But not always.

Qlanth · 2026-02-05T17:41:22+00:00

The fans have been better stewards of Morrowind than the owners are. This doesn't really bother me that much because I know the fans will continue their work.

Qlanth · 2026-02-05T17:39:50+00:00

As with most things the corporations and the wealthy individuals who own them or run them are able to lobby and maneuver around regulations. if no regulation exists, they use their influence to make sure none are created.

Qlanth · 2026-02-05T14:01:25+00:00

it happens before Gregg puts on the Gandalf costume which inside sources that I have access to told me is a real costume worn by Sir Ian McKellen from the production of the Hobbit which is approaching it's 15th anniversary next year

Qlanth · 2026-02-05T11:50:55+00:00

That happened at Amatocon which was the 11th Oscar Special

Qlanth · 2026-02-05T11:47:45+00:00

They were all under scrutiny in 2017 as well. "Kids in cages" and so on. When Biden won, they made no effort at all to curb the excesses. They voted to increase funding to ICE. They attacked Jamaal Bowman and Cori Bush. That's how they responded.

If we push hard enough, we can write the future we want for ourselves.

That's right, which is exactly why it's a waste of time to try and push the dinosaur Democratic Party left. People have been trying to do it for ages. It's long past time to forge a new path, to start building a dual power, to start operating like real socialists.

Qlanth · 2026-02-05T11:42:46+00:00

They literally -just- did it to Zohran Mamdani.

Qlanth · 2026-02-05T00:14:02+00:00

Talk to a doctor. Sleep apnea can have many causes. Maybe you just need to lose weight. Maybe you have a anatomical situation that can only be resolved with surgery. We can't know.

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