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This was a question or rather a series of questions I heard over the weekend as I was discussing Marxism, class, labour etc. with a friend and I frankly couldn't really answer their questions. So here I am again asking it because this community provides incredible answers <3

The discussion was about work and their question was: "If class is abolished in communism and the people are taken care of, why would anyone work at all? Who is going to work in coffee shops, pick up trash, work in stores etc.? What would be the incentive for people to do anything productive?" I did my best saying that those jobs would still exist, but I kind of fumbled the argument.

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[-] Are_Euclidding_Me@hexbear.net 10 points 3 days ago

Ok, but like, I clean my house, don't I? I hate that task, I would prefer to never have to do it, but living in filth is worse, so I clean.

I imagine it would be the same in communism at a community level. You have your local community park and it might not be fun to pick up garbage in it, but the community doesn't want their park to be covered in garbage, so they work together to give it the occasional cleaning!

We actually see this now, under capitalism even. Earth Day was last week, and I know of at least 3 different organized "clean up the park" events that happened in my local area. No one was paid for any of this work, and yet it happened, even in the capitalist hellscape that is the US.

this post was submitted on 28 Apr 2026
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