Communism, Inc.

...a social business coalition

About

Communism, Inc. is a half-serious name for a proposed socially-progressive, democratically-run coalition of businesses and individuals. I chose the name partly just to annoy free market capitalists (who tend to revile communism and socialism), but also because there are some genuine elements of communism in the idea as well as some elements of capitalism (hence the "Inc."). It is also a reminder that danger lurks at both ends of the collectivist-individualist spectrum.

Capitalistic elements

One fork of the coalition's strategy would be to target the plutonomy for profit opportunities -- finding the unmet needs of the well-to-do, and providing them at high prices.

Once it gained enough capital, it could engage in competitive acquisition -- buying up smaller businesses which would otherwise be absorbed into the plutonomy, and refactoring them to work as part of the coalition. The intention would be for them to remain just as competitive outside the coalition, but the surplus benefits (profits and other perks) would be distributed within the coalition according to democratically-decided rules.

Communistic elements

"From each according to his ability, to each according to his need. — Karl Marx

Members pay for goods and services on a sliding scale adjusted for income; non-members would generally pay higher rates. The very poorest would pay at-cost or possibly less, depending on the degree of hardship. This is especially true for services with low marginal cost.

Members of the coalition would be encouraged:

• to set prices for each member in a way that generally reduces economic disparity among members (with sustainability being a priority)
• to hire other members first, when they need work done

This "encouragement" would not be rigidly enforced, but rather would be evaluated continually and the evaluations would be easily findable online. Members (individuals or businesses) who were particularly positive or negative in their contribution-to-ability ratio would be called out for praise or condemnation.

Members would network and share resources using federated retail principles.

Notes

Austrian-school libertarians should have no problem with this idea, even if they have no interest in joining: "It is fully consistent with libertarian- ism that, for example, a group of Puritans decide together to settle a territory and institute a religious commonwealth, or that a group of communists set up a socialist republic."[1]