Why Does Atheism and Left-Wing Politics Usually Go Together?

[The Grand Nudger]

In a communist society, those that refuse to work are still looked after by the society. They are rewarded with food, etc.

Would that be so horrible? Some lazy sonofabitch you don't like still gets to eat..the horror.

A person can quite happily do nothing and still get to eat, since the distribution of food and supplies in communism is based on needs, not on who has earned it.

On the flipside, a person can work their ass off and still get nothing, happens all the time. We call those people "the working poor". They comprise the majority of the society I live in. Their time is spent securing the most basic of needs to the point that nothing else gets much consideration. Cogs in the wheel, and why? Because without that perpetual motion machine running at the core of our societies some lucky kid somewhere (lucky, mind you, by means of birth, not hard work) couldn't afford a fucking IPhone. Yay.

In capitalism, the distribution is based on how much work you put in.

Um...not exactly.....

Work hard, and you get more.

Whenceforth cometh the working poor?

Be successful, and you get more. The only help that slackers get would be from charities (though I suspect not many charities would support known work-avoiders).

Definitely agree with you there, be more successful and you get more, but that's almost a tautology isn;t it, since success is measured by "how much more" you get in the first place. Of course, "being successful" is a big camp...and might just include quite a few lazy...work avoiding motherfuckers....don't you think?

Rather than approaching this ideologically, wouldn't it be more effective to approach it practically? Government is a tool for organizing society right? A screwdriver (communism) is great when the goal is to turn a screw, but if you see a bolt you might want to try a wrench (capitalism). I see nothing wrong with managing our basic necessities in some communistic manner, whilst leveraging some form of capitalism for everything that falls outside of that arena. I'm not sure that "life" should be a for-profit industry, while I have no qualms about IPhones being a for-profit industry. For example, I would support local ownership of state sponsored food production (which, in a heavily jacked up way is what we already have). I would also support private enterprise in the same market (which we already have, and which has no problems competing with gov sponsered ag in markets that aren't grain and potatoes). It really has to be mentioned..that under a "pure" sort of capitlism certain jobs, though essential and full of hard work, are forgotten. It doesn't have anything to do with the laziness of the person, or a measure of their success, but that as the very bottom of the pyramid scheme that is capitalism we simply can't pay them more without the whole house of cards falling down. Food production is a great example of this. Consider the investment and opportunity cost of owning a single acre of land for a moment...and then imagine looking at making 14$ US as your annual net on said acre...working your ass off for it. That's the situation for a corn grower, and I think that this makes a great study in those often obscured or unconsidered bits of capitalism that allow it to succeed. There's some farmer in Nebraska subsidizing capitalism.............