Karl Marx’s 10-point checklist for a communist society

Communism is fashionable again. The hip kids are sporting Che Guevara t-shirts, reading “Das Kapital,” and calling themselves Bernie Bros.

That said, is the United States on the verge of becoming a communist state? While there are aspects of the country that is socialist or at least leaning towards socialism, it is still relatively dominated by the marketplace.

How do you know you live in a communist society?

Here is Karl Marx’s 10-point checklist:

• Abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to public purposes.
• A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.
• Abolition of all rights of inheritance.
• Confiscation of the property of all immigrants and rebels.
• Centralization of credit in the hands of the state, by means of the National Bank with the state capital and an exclusive monopoly.
• Centralization of the means of communication and transport in the hands of the state.
• Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the state; to bring into cultivation of waste land, in the improvement of the soil generally in accordance with a common plan.
• Equal liability of all to labor. Establishment of industrial armies, especially for agriculture.
• Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual abolition of the distinction between town and country, by a more equitable distribution of the population over the country.
• Free education for all children in public schools. Abolition of children’s factory labor in its present form. Combination of education with industrial production, etc.

(H/T Robert Wenzel)