The Spiritual Dimension

While communism is an inefficient economic system and a horrible form of large-scale government, on the small scale it can be a powerful spiritual exercise. To live within a communist system is to have an intense awareness of the needs and wants of others. Intense communication is part of day-to-day survival. This intensity of togetherness can banish loneliness, but it can also make loneliness look good! Communism magnifies human interaction both good and bad. This is a powerful argument against forcing people into a communal situation unwillingly.

Marriage is an example of communism. In that sense even the most right wing of Republicans believe in some communism. The primary dispute between the extreme Right and Left is how far to scale up communism.

While I am a firm believer in market process at the higher scales of human activity, I do think a good dose of communism at some point in life is spiritually rewarding. Many people get this during their college years, and I remember mine fondly. But a dose of a more independent existence is also rewarding. The key point is that a communal existence is allowed even in a free market society. Indeed, I get my biggest dose of communal economics these days as a committee member of the local Libertarian Party affiliate.

Some conservative and libertarian writers such as Charles Murray have pointed out that there is a spiritual void produced when we rely on government welfare systems instead of private charity. The spiritual impact of writing a check to charity out of love is profoundly different to that of writing out a check to the IRS out of fear. And when the tax load gets really high, hearts can be severely hardened.

By itself, this argument does not prove that we should privatize all welfare, but it is certainly a powerful argument for privatizing some of it. At the very least, we need to get rid of the common impression that a large proportion of tax dollars actually go to the needy vs. back to the taxpayers in the form of government services those taxpayers could have purchased on the free market.

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