Howdy! I’m new here and was hoping someone might have some insight to a question I’ve been thinking about for a while:
If I saved up my money and bought a tractor, would it be permissible/ethical to charge others to use it when I didn’t need it?
This seems awfully similar to owning the means of production. What if I instead offered to plow their fields for them instead, driving the tractor myself and negotiating fair compensation in exchange?
Sorry if this is basic stuff I’m still learning. 🙏
Marxism is a materialist worldview, not a moral one. I could give my personal opinion, but Marxism can never answer a question that begins with “Is it moral/ethical/permissible to…?”
A tractor is a means of production. Owning a tractor would make you a member of the Petite Bourgeoisie - a person who owns their own means of production, but does not own enough to get by without also working, typically self-employed. Leasing the tractor to others doesn’t change this, but it is an example of Rentierism - something that will not exist under Communism. If you owned a thousand tractors, and could live comfortably off of the rent you charged others to use them, that would make you a Capitalist, a member of the Bourgeoisie.
Different people will have different thresholds over whether they think some Rentierism is acceptable. I believe it is fine as long as you remain small-scale and have affordable prices. Others may disagree, believing that either all Rentierism is acceptable until Socialism is achieved or that Rentierism is never acceptable. Marxism cannot give an answer to a moral question, and so the answer is personal.
Socialism is not a guide on moral behavior under Capitalism, but an argument that organizing along Socialist lines is better for Humanity than Capitalist lines.
If your question refers to it: Marxism is an analysis of the social structure of market economy. It doesn’t work as a guidebook for individual behaviour inside of market economy, but for collective emancipation from a social order that results in exploitation.
Doing so would mean decide collectively/democratically over the collaborative use of the means of production.
“I’m buying some means of production with my money” and “their fields” is a market economy situation.
You don’t go from caputalism to socialism by individually changing your personal economic behaviour, but by changing social order.
Thanks for your response! If I understand correctly, you’re saying the state / my community should collectively hold a vote to see if me leasing out the tractor is exploitative, and maybe prevent me from doing so or appropriate it for the collective benefit?
It was also my understanding that markets still exist under socialism in some level?
The point is not over your tractor, individually. If you were living under marxism, society would have decided “all [farming equipment, factories, whatever] are the property of the community and you cannot own them individually”. You couldn’t lease your tractor, because you couldn’t own the tractor to begin with.
Markets largely still exist in socialism we see today because capitalism is extremely pervasive. A socialist state currently is forced to behave like a capitalist entity to at least the outside world, or they will be taken advantage of by capitalists. Because of this, all socialists states today are internally capitalist with some social programs, as opposed to fully Marxists.
Thanks for your response! As I understand, even under marxism I still have the ability to use the product of my labour to buy things for my personal use? Like if I want to own a painting or piece of art, I can exchange the products of my labour with an artist for the products of their labour.
Regarding ownership, personal property still exists on some level, right? I don’t want other people wearing my clothes or sleeping in my bed for instance. I might not even want people driving my personal car if it’s something that I collected, built, or restored myself.
Indeed. Marx is actually very careful in distinguishing personal property (your toothbrush, your bed) from the means of production (a tractor, a lathe, a factory). If it were a society where it’s needed to have a car then it would probably be your own, but it’d be better for everyone if the public infrastructure (that belongs to the community) made it so cars aren’t a requirement.
If I saved up my money and bought a tractor
What if I instead offered to plow their fields for them instead
You assume it is necessary to use money to buy a tractor for yourself, you assume “their fields” are owned by “them.” What if the state provided you with a tractor and the land? Or even if money were involved, what if the state provided you with the money to buy the tractor and the land?
There would be laws to allow you to hire other people to use the tractor and farm the land, but by law, the surplus of their labor (whatever they planted, farm, sell at market) would belong to them, likewise the surplus of your own labor would belong to you. You could use the surplus (money, goods, what have you) to trade with anyone else.
Thanks your response! I understand that distributed ownership and cooperatives exist as an option, even in existing capitalist societies. What I do wonder about is to what extent private ownership would still be permitted to exist?
Maybe in my scenario nobody else in the community thought the tractor was a priority investment at the time the purchase was made. Or perhaps instead of just me owning the tractor, it’s instead owned by my cooperative and we’re wondering if we can lease it out to other cooperatives?
What I do wonder about is to what extent private ownership would still be permitted to exist?
Yeah, I think that is debatable and there are probably a few solutions, since we are only talking about hypothetical society. Just thinking out loud myself now: your example of leasing the tractor to other collectives could be done using money but there would have to be strict regulations to ensure that your lease price was fair, and maybe you would not be to charge interest, or only enough interest to cover the risk of losing the tractor. Or it could all just be done much more informally on a “to each their need” basis and the honor system, and you could maybe take them to court for a new one if they destroyed it or something.
I wish I knew more about how it worked in countries like Vietnam or Cuba, they probably have it all worked out.
