Karl Marx describes in his communist manifesto, the ten steps necessary to destroy a free enterprise system and replace it with a system of omnipotent government power, so as to effect a communist socialist state. Those ten steps are known as the Ten Planks of The Communist Manifesto…

Another thing to remember, Karl Marx in creating the Communist Manifesto designed these planks AS A TEST to determine whether a society has become communist or not. If they are all in effect and in force, then the people ARE practicing communists.

Communism, by any other name is still communism, and is VERY VERY destructive to the individual and to the society!!

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

2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.

3. Abolition of all rights of inheritance.

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

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

6. Centralization of the means of communications and transportation in the hands of the State.

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.

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

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

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.

How far along is your country?

Was a great philosopher of the Hegelian Left. So pretty please, with a cherry on top, bugger off and leave the discussion of the intricacies of his system to people who have a clue - political philosophers who have read more than bits and pieces taken out of context, while also having a historical and scholarly perspective... and, obviously, the intellectual maturity to avoid sentences like "Communism is communism and communism is bad" can only be a convincing and self-evident argument to the most naive - people who should be EDUCATED, not MANIPULATED. Thank you and good night.

Please don't feed the troll, just report the thread and let it die.

WE already know Communism is a failure so why support it. It is nothing but a big welfare state no freedom to speak of. I take it Poland must still have a lot of Mother Russia in its Govt. yet since I hit a nerve.

I don't get why the opening post is low rated. Would any of you care to explain why you low rated it?

It doesn't belong on GOG.

Because it's off topic, or because of another reason? If another reason, then what is the reason? I thought off topic threads were both allowed by the moderators and very accepted by the community. I've seen and participated in some great OT discussions on these boards. I am asking this genuinely, with no hostility in my tone of voice.

GOG stands for "Good Old Games", not "Grand Old Generalissimos". Politics does not belong here. Plain and simple. There are much better places to discuss this kind of thing, where you will get much better responses from a much more educated and engaged audience.

If you can't find anywhere on the internet to discuss it, try Hyde Park on a Sunday.

I don't mind discussion about politics as such, but I do mind retarded propaganda. FlyByU has literally no clue what he is talking about, and just copy-pastes some idiocy someone else who has no clue wrote. Intellectually, this is about as low as you can get.

EDIT: The source is here, by the way. It's not from his own head.

That's fair enough, even though I'm okay with threads like this personally. Although the post did indeed seem like a copy paste job of some kind of flyer or poster you might seen on a streetlight in New York. Not much substance to start a good discussion; I guess OP just wanted to promote communism awareness.

Anyway, I was just curious.

I low-rated it because it was clearly copied and pasted from somewhere without any review of it's contents and what they might actually mean for individuals. This exact post, word-for-word, has been making its way around political discussion groups for over a decade.

The planks regarding public education, prohibition of child labor, centralized transportation, and improving the quality of the soil are all clear admissions against interest.

Free access to information is one of the most important tools an individual can have to advance his own private interests. Education is what allows people to have and to take advantage of opportunities. It allows people to take advantage of their own creativity and create new technologies and new industries. This would be impossible without the prohibition of child labor, because children would all be in factories rather than in school. As for centralized transportation, the construction of the interstate highway system in America and it's maintenance has mobilized people and capital, serving both capitalist and individual interest. As for improving the quality of the soil, that's a no-brainer. If this is what communism stands for, sign me up.

Confiscating property of immigrants and rebels, by contrast, is a completely different flaw in this post. It's a total non-sequitur. If there is no such thing as private property, then there's no such thing as private property. Immigrants and rebels would not be singled out under this scheme.

Now, I don't personally agree with entirely replacing the power of private individuals with state power, but if you're going to use the state to regulate private power, as has always been done, you're going to have to pay for it as a society. The best way is always with money, and the only way your government gets money is from taxing people who have it. Otherwise you end up with a fifteen trillion dollar national debt!

This is partially wrong. As others stated politics is fine to talk about here, but blathering on while using various propaganda is not......which is what I think you meant or were trying to say.