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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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[-] GreatSquare@lemmygrad.ml 10 points 3 weeks ago

“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?”

Work still needs to happen. This takes coordination and organisation. Production is still required but people won't live in a class based society.

The modern world produces way more complicated things than a cup of coffee. People are still going to own personal possessions under communism. They just aren't going to be able to charge someone else rent to use their stuff.

this post was submitted on 28 Apr 2026
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