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Luke from DC (not verified)
Big centralized economies never work well

The Soviet Union's so called "communism" had trouble producing anything. The US's capitalism (with nearly as much business-state interdependence as the Soviets or even under fascism) can produce enough to glut markets, then is unable to distribute it. There have been times where seemingly enough food to make the whole world obese rotted in warehouses while elsewhere people starved under capitalism. During Great Depression #1 they even plowed harvested crops into the ground covered in diesel fuel so they would not drive down prices of food being sold to people who had no money with which to buy it.

Under capitalism today, manufacturing becomes so specialized that nothing is made from simple precursors under one roof. Instead intricate supply chains micro-divide labor. When it runs well this system gluts the shelves with cheap junk and expensive luxuries alike. Throw in a pandemic or even bad weather closing a port, and the whole thing collapses into chaos. This is how people end up wiping their ass on the newspaper's predictions of a rosy future-there is no toilet paper on the shelves. Small village capitalism with small shops making finished goods directly from raw materials is a more resilient economy even if less productive. Same as microgrids keep delivering electricity when big grids fail.

Real communism was (and is) practiced in tribal societies where everyone knows everyone else, and knows who will suffer if they slack off or overconsume. If you are hunting for your tribe but decide to go rock climbing instead, you know the faces of those you will be leaving hungry that night. They will also know who's lazy ass left them hungry. Also you won't be eating either.

I see the key to anarchism (absence of a monopoly of force e.g a state or a dominant cartel) as being a balance of power. If nobody can seek to dominate other social groups without encountering resistance doing more damage than the value of their planned aggression, than such domination will usually be deterred and hopefully be defeated the rest of the time. This can block concentrations of power from ever forming.

Anarchism is a political system: any political system that does NOT rely on a generally recognized and accepted monopoly of armed force. Capitalism and communism by comparison are economic systems, methods of arranging production of goods beyond what can be made in the home workshop or subsistance farm.

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