Wandering Meteor-Chapter 213 - 212: The Shadow of Communism

The robot representative said, "Please rest assured, we understand that we are life created by civilized society and we understand the current situation. Wandering in the vast Universe, even we Mechanical Life cannot survive alone and still need the united strength of a collective to survive in the Universe. Therefore, we will not intentionally damage this society and collective. Our starting point is also for the betterment of this collective." freёweɓnovel.com

"Stop with the empty talk, do you have any evidence to prove the feasibility of Communism?" the Capitalist Faction asked.

The robot representative said, "Of course, ever since we participated in the Wandering Star System situation conference, we have been researching relevant materials at all times, trying to find a system that suits both us robots and the current production relations. In fact, we also considered capitalism, but through data analysis, we have found that capitalism is outdated and has become a system that restricts the development of civilized society. It cannot accommodate new production relations, nor can it completely liberate productive forces. Therefore, we decided to implement Communism after analyzing and comparing."

"Hmph!" the Capitalist Faction scoffed with disdain.

Knowing that the other party wanted to see concrete data, the robot representative said, "Through statistics and calculations, we have found that today’s productive forces are very developed, and the amount of materials needed for the global citizens’ living and working within a week can now be produced in just two days. However, under the capitalist system, capitalists will definitely want to exploit workers to the greatest extent, causing the workforce to endlessly create value for them. Even when it is unnecessary, capitalists would demand workers to work five days a week, or even work overtime on weekends, and some even proposed the 996 working model, claiming that the young should strive, but no matter how nice the rhetoric is, it cannot change the nature of exploitation."

"Therefore, we believe that under the capitalist ’remuneration according to work’ distribution model, capitalists will exploit and squeeze workers, greatly diminishing the value of their labor. They will also control the market by controlling the outflow of goods and raising prices, causing workers to spend most of their time creating, and then sending the money earned back into the hands of the capitalists through purchasing goods. This model might have been useful for the old society where the economy was underdeveloped, and productive forces were not advanced, but for the current society with extremely developed productive forces, unprecedented wealth, and highly intelligent people, it is an obstacle and will hinder the progress of civilized society."

"After comprehensive consideration, we believe that the communist system can liberate this new productive force relationship, because Communism promotes a ’from each according to their ability, to each according to their needs’ distribution model. Let’s assume, with the current productive forces, global living materials only require two days of production to meet needs, meaning every person would only need to work two days a week. Even factoring in additional unexpected needs, at most people would need to work three days a week. The remaining four days would be people’s free time, when they can do things they’re interested in, travel, develop hobbies, spend more time with family, etc. It can be said that as productive forces and consciousness progress, people’s pursuits will advance from material desires to spiritual pursuits."

"Therefore, I want to sternly refute the Capitalist Faction’s anti-human nature argument here. Communism is not anti-human nature, but rather a system that develops and conforms to human nature. With its far-sighted vision, Communism saw human nature’s selfishness and anticipated that selfish human nature would gradually move from material to spiritual pursuits because, in an era of extremely developed productive forces, materials are actually no longer important to people, so human selfishness will readily give up on unimportant things and pursue more important ones. This is like in ancient times when, due to productive forces, rice was the primary need for the common people and the country. But as productive forces improved and food became abundant, even in excess, food was no longer important, at least no longer a primary need. Thus, its status in people’s minds declined, and many liberated peasants began to pursue money, which could buy more things. Therefore, those who say Communism is against human nature are completely misunderstanding it under the influence of others."

The Social Faction said, "Actually, it’s not completely wrong; they are looking at new things with an old perspective. In their outdated social system, the productive forces are not enough to liberate the constraining power of money on human nature. When they hear that under the communist system, all wealth belongs to the collective, they regard it as an anti-human act. But actually, they don’t realize that money, which they consider very important now, could become worthless in the future. Giving up something as worthless as money is far too easy for selfish human nature. Besides, even now, a trend has emerged where many workers no longer care about money, hence, a lot of people protest and march to reduce overtime in order to fight for their own free time. This is an act of giving up some money (since overtime pays more) in pursuit of spiritual pleasure, and it represents progress in a civilized society."

"That is also one of the reasons why we suggest implementing Communism. As long as it’s a capitalist system, the capitalists’ nature will not change; they will find ways to exploit workers, gradually forming a restraint on human nature and hindering societal progress. This is determined by the nature of the social system and cannot be changed by self-improvement. The only method is to switch to a more advanced and suitable system," said the robot.

Even if Communism isn’t anti-human nature, as you say," said the Capitalist Faction, "what about the ’from each according to their ability, to each according to their needs’ distribution model you mentioned? If everyone goes off to play, won’t it lead to a slowdown in the economy, less innovation, and ultimately a stagnant society with slow development?"

"You still haven’t understood Communism, or rather your concept is outdated," the Social Faction said. "’From each according to their ability, to each according to their needs’ is just a distribution model, but of course, there will be many specific rules and frameworks in actual implementation. When the time comes, we will naturally set up some rewards and incentives to ensure the orderly progress of society."

"Moreover, in the new social system, the primary driving force for production is no longer the stimulation of money, but the pursuit of interests and hobbies (spiritual pursuits). Indeed, many people may go out to play, but there will definitely also be people developing their hobbies, which is a diversified development that will inevitably appear in society. Plus, you need to understand that in the new social system, there is the principle of ’from each according to their ability.’ This means that under Communism, not everyone may work in their preferred career, but at least a significant portion will, and the creativity they unleash while engaging in their favorite work is certainly much more effective than what could be stimulated by money."

"I believe I don’t need to give more examples, as you often see this in society as well."

After the Social Faction spoke, the robot continued, "Perhaps you have not realized that since becoming a Level Three Civilization, the capital society implemented by Earth Civilization already has the shadow of a communist society. Capitalism, with the development of productive forces, has already begun to naturally transition to Communism. We have compiled several sets of data that can be shown to you."