DUANE PAUL MURPHY, San Clemente
Imagine sometime in the future, a coastal city, a village by the sea, if you will, where its own society and community—not hierarchical authoritarian and totalitarian businesses, as well as any sort of institution that puts profit and greed before people and planet—collectively and democratically own and manage the means of production and distribution of goods, services, and resources.
A medium-sized suburban city along the Pacific Oceanic shores where workers or members owned, managed, and controlled the businesses they are employed at in the form of cooperatives, ESOPs, credit unions, or codetermination.
A community where inland and coastal areas have universal basic services such as a humane and inclusive universal health care system that truly covers everyone and is both affordable, accessible, and cost-effective; high-quality public education that is actually integrated and student input would begin to matter; complementary mass public transit; municipalized Internet, and adequate green social housing.
A city of more than 64,000 people that often feels like a small town, where all the natural land is under control by the people and not the banks; residential apartments are cooperatively controlled by its tenants and not landlords; and manufactured communities such as mobile homes are managed and operated by the residents and not private entities or individuals.
After living in a city where the affluent bourgeois with their golf courses, country clubs, and gated communities have done nothing but to stifle human decency and progress, San Clemente needs a Democratic socialist society where our democratic institutions are governed for, by, and of the working people—not upper-middle class, millionaire, or even billionaire individuals.
The cost of doing nothing to end poverty, homelessness, higher costs of living, and human-made environmental crises is far more expensive than doing something. The time for liberation and revolutionary reform is now or at least in the near future, before it is too late. It’s either Democratic socialism or barbarism.
Humanity or barbarity. Radical popular democracy or plutocratic and aristocratic oligarchy.
Imagine “no heirarchical and totalitarian businesses?” You mean like the repressive “Golden Spoon?” Or Sonny’s? Or Wahoo’s? The beauty of Capitalism is that it’s voluntary. Businesses exist by creating products that consumers want to buy. When they stop doing that, they cease to exist.
Socialism doesn’t work that way. It’s not voluntary. If you have just one choice and don’t like it, where do you go to complain? Don’t like your medical choices? Tough. Live with it, or just die.
Think of it this way, if you’re a capitalist zealot, it’s extremely difficult to force your ideology on the public. If you’re a socialist zealot, it’s not. Check out history for examples.
“Imagine all the people…”. It’s a beautiful song but it is utopia.
Actually, these kind of units exist. They are called “kibbutz” and they exist in Israel. Some of them are very productive, some not. But they are built not base on an existing city but on free membership. It could be a beautiful idea but definitely not for everyone. Imagine, do you want to take a permission to take a car on your weekend or ask the community for a vacation trip?
Another form of collective ownership was “kolhoz”, or “collective farm” in the Soviet Union. It was not a free form of unity. Isn’t it what the author of the article suggests? You all know how it ended. After 50 something years of misery the system collapsed.
Congratulations! This article is the biggest piece of stinky garbage to lace SC Times in a while and that’s saying a lot! I hope you can crawl out of mommy’s basement and into reality sometime soon.
Who is going to pay for this unrealistic ideology?
@SCTimes-you are better then pieces like this….. or???
So basically this guy wants to give everyone free apartments? Maybe we need to take him on a field trip to local HUD housing where his ideal already exists. It’s less than an hour away…come visit the projects in Watts & East LA. These places already have everything he’s asking for where the “residential apartments are cooperatively controlled by its tenants and not landlords”.
Watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjqiKnz1mUU
Socialism ALWAYS promises utopia but ALWAYS delivers nightmare. As the saying goes, you can vote your way into socialism, but you must shoot your way out of it.
“It’s either Democratic socialism or barbarism.”
Really? Since Americans have consistently rejected “Democratic” socialism, then according to you we must be currently experiencing barbarism…is that right?
Consider:
Lowest unemployment in 50 years, lowest black unemployment since records were kept, labor participation rate rising for the first time in many years, consumer confidence the highest in a generation, real wages rising for all income levels, stock market setting new records every month (Corona Virus temporarily arresting these record highs), is this your idea of “barbarism”?
May I say to you that Venezuela more accurately resembles a society that has devolved into “barbarism” and they have done so precisely because they adopted the economic system YOU promote.
you can vote it in ( socialism )
but you’ll need to shoot your way out of it
Imagine sometime in the future, a coastal city, a village by the sea, if you will, where no one is incentivized to improve their lot, that suckles at the teat of a sloth-like bureaucracy, controlled and corrupted by a few who hide behind the charade of equality, and where the quality of life rapidly declines at the service of a generation of the naïve, ignorant to the lessons of history.
you folks understand thus guy is trolling you, right?
Socialism is a failed system that leads to shortages and hunger.
“you folks understand thus guy is trolling you, right?”
In light of the popularity of socialism among the young and stupid, why would I or anyone else assume this individual is just trolling? Maybe he is but it is an opportunity to again, point out the failures of socialism.
Dude– even Dems know socialism is nonsense— they are rejecting both of the hard left candidates….you guys are arguing with no one and being trolled—. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz your missives are dull amigo….