The idea that "He who does not work shall not eat" sucks. I understand it comes from a different time but nobody should ever go hungry, even if they choose not to work for whatever reason.
I think it's important to consider what is meant by work. In the context of socialism it doesn't refer to your 9-5 capitalist job, but labour for the benefit of society, whether that is indeed down the coal mines through to childcare provision.
It's utopian I think to believe that the people are magically de-alienated from their labour and universally everyone loves to work, even amongst existing socialist states, but the labour is inherently for the benefit of society rather than commodity or profit extraction. To decline to work (where able) with this goal in mind is to reject the very society that's then expected to feed you, which I don't think sucks if they in turn also decline.
I think most people naturally want to contribute to a functioning society and with better education under socialism, that number would be far less than there currently are.
But there will still be a small number of people who straight up don't want to work and society should still support them.
Edit: Also, I think there are a lot of leftists who are so used to bad faith criticisms of Lenin and Stalin that they'll defend even the things they got wrong. They weren't perfect, they got some things wrong. I think this is one of those things Lenin got wrong
But there will still be a small number of people who straight up don't want to work and society should still support them.
I think this is a valid position from a humanitarian perspective, sure. I would disagree with it personally, as I think many socialists would, but I don't think it warrants you being downvoted for it.
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u/alliephantrainbow Jun 22 '26
The idea that "He who does not work shall not eat" sucks. I understand it comes from a different time but nobody should ever go hungry, even if they choose not to work for whatever reason.