Full communism

P. D. Wiles

pp. 193-195

in: John Eatwell, Murray Milgate, Peter Newman (eds), Marxian economics, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 1990

Abstract

In Marx and Marxism, Full Communism is that final state of humanity in which productivity is higher than wants and everyone can help himself in the warehouses (not shops!). Since productivity cannot be unlimited, this entails that wants are limited: a direct contradiction to one of the basic propositions of Western economics. This is only possible because wants have been reduced to needs. Originally a governmental concept, needs are accepted as valid by each consumer, and internalized to become the new wants.

Cited authors

Marx Karl