Merry Christmas to those who celebrate!
The Roman World into which Jesus was born was a pure market economy. Property was private, taxes were ridiculously low by modern standards (perhaps 1-5% of income), and government-provided welfare was negligible. The New Testament describes a Christian community that voluntarily opted out of the Roman economic and political system:
Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common.
There was not a needy person among them, for as many as owned lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold.
Acts 4:32, 34
We’re told that socialism and communism are enjoying renewed popularity in the U.S. Young progressives love Bernie Sanders and the Ayatollah Mamdani.
It’s perfectly possible to set up a voluntary communist or at least communalist society in the U.S. See, for example, Amana, Iowa: 75 years of communal living, in which people lived without private property embedded within a capitalist society.
Why aren’t at least some young progressives living their dream via voluntary contract?
Loosely related… Jupiter Mayor Jim Kuretski’s house, Christmas 2021:
Related:
> Why aren’t we seeing a resurgence of voluntary communism within the U.S.?
Again a good example of Dr. Greenspun knowing all the answers but amusing us by asking questions, 😀 . There are so many platforms to connect people online, that’s digital communism, no? The interpersonal relations which used to be “IRL” have shifted to the online space. People have a different notion of being “connected”, being part of a “group”, discussing something, etc. The energy that went into communicating IRL is going into writing comments (like this), writing SMSs, connecting over phone, listening to podcasts, liking and subscribing YT, PH channels, etc.
Communal living implies redirecting that social energy into negotiating with each other, listening to others’ problems and sharing your own, trusting others, making sure that all members live in harmony. That needs a lot of social skills and energy, people don’t have that left after all the YTing and PHing, right?
They all required coercion to make work. The crazies from the 60’s who did that have all killed themselves off or died in prison by now. Just remember Manson Family, Colonia Dignidad, Branch Davidian.
Phil, a little secret to share with you (please keep it on the down low?). Were you asleep during the reign of Barack Hussein Obama and Joseph Robinette Biden (both of whom promulgated communism and were supported voluntarily by half or more of the population)? Comprende?
Thank you, Hunter, and I hope that you find a way to pay the $15 million in personal unsecured debt that you recently described in an interview. A lot of Americans would probably love to hear about your system for obtaining a $15 million unsecured personal loan!
Philip, under communism.everyone would be entitled for 15 million unsecured loan, if such nuisances as currencies existed under communism.
Phil, thank you very much for your commiseration. Sadly, I now have no “system” to obtain a $15 million loan now that the Communist regime of Barack Hussein Obama and Joseph Robinette Biden has been cast aside. Under Communism, there was a wonderful program for Student debt (the debt with which I am saddled) foregiveness, particularly for ‘A’ Students like me. Perhaps you would care enough to make a contribution towards debt relief for a deserving Delaware Father, Husband, and otherwise Family Man like me?
Hunter could easily write* a bestselling memoir, perhaps even on its own merits but, Hunter, do secure the customary hefty advance anyway. He’s already been pardoned for its contents too. I might well buy it.
(* with the input of a second author, of course)
There was government-provided welfare in Rome: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cura_annonae
About communal living, I would recommend the Swedish film ‘Together’:
https://imdb.com/title/tt0203166/ It is fascinating to see how the group exerts pressure on individuals to conform to an ideological ideal and how the desire for privacy, individualism, and individual preferences resists and leads to tension and passive resistance.
They went that far with such ideas that they built communal apartments in some apartment buildings in the 70s.
Another Scandinavian example of communal living or anarchist community is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freetown_Christiania I visited 25 years ago and what surprised and amused me that they had to reinvent ‘civilization’ (e.g. garbage collection) and my impression was that they were slowly converging to what mankind outside their walls had already settled to. I thought they just lost 30+ years by revolutionarily exiting the conventions of bourgeois life only to slowly come back to it.
Adso: by “Roman World” I meant to include Jesus’s home of Judea and not Rome itself. My understanding of the Roman system was that Romans in Rome got various free things, but that the provinces were places from which resources were extracted, not places to which resources were provided. Not that different from Washington, D.C., actually. D.C. is by far the richest territory (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_territories_by_income ) and its citizens get all kinds of good stuff for free on the backs of peasants in other parts of the U.S.
Christianity and communism/socialism have a lot of similarities including the denigration of those who create wealth & the lionization of the losers. Unlike Hebrew scripture, Christian scripture does not deal with people responsible for running a society so it has the luxury of promoting lots of luxury beliefs that don’t work in the real world.
I find it difficult to find anything new in Christianity which was not expressed in Judaism somehow, either in 5 books of Moses or later writings and recordings, including the later prophets and written oral law and discussions. I do not think that Christianity is communist.
“Render to Caesar what is Caesar’s” is a well know phrase attributed to Jesus showing him not to be a communist revolutionary. He also said a lesser know thing, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or Prophets” (Matthew. 5:17). The only new thing was that he intended to extend Hebrew Bible to the Greeks, without requiring them be kosher (unlike Hebrews). This is not entirely new either as Hebrew Bible protected rights, including property rights, of non-Jews in Israel, to the point that a Jewish criminal could be sold into temporary slavery to a gentile leaving in Israel under Jewish rule.
As for the observation that “we’re told that socialism and communism are enjoying renewed popularity in the U.S.” and that “young progressives love Bernie Sanders and the Ayatollah Mamdani,” I must remind you that: “the problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money.”
Speaking of communism, did you know that Donald Trump Jr. is an expert in Nuclear Fusion?
https://tae.com/trump-media-and-technology-group-to-merge-with-tae-technologies/
Everybody went crazy when Hunter Biden was appointed to the board of Burisma and paid only $5 million, what a peasant!
Barron Trump is a tech genius, on the board of World Liberty Financial
https://www.forbes.com/sites/kylemullins/2025/10/06/how-19-year-old-barron-trump-is-worth-150-million/
Joe and Hunter Biden are complete amateurs compared with the Trump family.
Nobody has to work anymore, we just have to get appointed to the board of a Fortune 500 company! In communism work was compulsory, in the US you do not have to work, you just have to be on the board of a large company. Therefore the US is not communist, QED!
Follow the money trail