Vatas' signature, ex Karl Marx wrote:“Sell a man a fish, he eats for a day, teach a man how to fish, you ruin a wonderful business opportunity.”
I used to think this was a parody, the sort of saying you'd hear from Groucho Marx when quoting the old German agitator.
But after reading it I suppose for the hundredth time, I see that, while it may have been said with the same jocularity I detect in it, he meant it seriously. And it is a serious and understandable concern of his, even to the 19th century man.
For those who don't know what it means, it basically is saying that, if you thoroughly teach someone how to do something, they will probably do it for themselves and therefore become self-sufficient and need no business.
This makes sense, as the society envisioned by Marxism must necessarily be entirely self-sufficient; in order to be successful and sustainable, it must have skilled people who can do everything a society needs to exist: not only soldiers, welders, and carpenters, but also bakers, launderers, customer servants and propagandists.
However, the irony is that no one man can be fully self-sufficient. If you teach a man to fish, he might choose to become a fisherman. But then he does not also have time to become a seamster to sew his own clothes, a carpenter to build and maintain his own house, a miner and smelter to make his own pots and pans, much less his own computer, AND a cook to make crab cakes when he's done all the rest.
TIME is one of the factors that makes commerce happen naturally. Because men have many needs, they must learn many skills. This takes time, and in the meantime your needs are still not being met. Common sense would seem to say, if many people live together, far better for each man to focus on one task so everyone can come together and in some way divide the fruits of our labour. And this naturally happens through commerce.
If you teach a man to fish, he might not choose to fish for himself. Or he might choose to fish under your leadership. Or too many men may learn to fish and you wouldn't have enough seamstresses or bakers or lawyers. Or, more likely today, teach too many people that a degree in grievance studies will get you a job, and you have too many people complaining about how bad the world is, and not enough practical people to do anything about it.
Ah. Then the socialist state, rather ironically, sweeps in and makes a business proposal with its constituents: you vote for us, and we will give you everything. Free healthcare. Free education. Free for everyone, even people from the world over. Never mind we can't afford it. We will find a way through your obvious goodwill proved by your bitching about rich, white, cisgendered men.
What Marx wants, if he's honest with himself, is a society where commerce is fair, honest, and where no one is left behind. He believes he can achieve it if no one is considered better or more prestigious than another; he wishes to humble all so they may all be exalted materially. But this simply is diametrically opposed to how human nature works, as it currently stands. Putting us in a different social situation - by removing kings and replacing them with democracies - has not really improved the situation. Marxist states returned to an oligarchy or a monarchy, and for the worse; they never could reach a classless society, ironically because it would have put politburos out of a job.
If a perfect human society is possible, it is not for very long nor with a very large number of people. The closest I've come to seeing it is in the company of friends, or at perhaps one Thanksgiving dinner, where we are content to serve each other because it is for their leisure and it is not a big bother. But in the unimportant matter of living, people pay me to serve people they haven't time to serve. People tip me for food they did not have time to pick up, much less make. And I buy games I haven't the time to learn to make myself. And while I sometimes get stiffed, or my boss does not always get useful labour out of me, or I don't always get everything I wanted in the computer, overall, I think specialisation the the resulting commerce is a good start. When it is reinforced with honour and honesty and hard work, all of which must come voluntarily, or else by the grace of God, you really have a good society or at least a good worker.
I will close with a quote I think it reasonable to attribute to Vladimir Lenin, who said it on his deathbed:
“To save our Russia, what we needed (but it is too late now) was ten Francises of Assisi. Ten Francises of Assisi, and we should have saved Russia.”
Make men virtuous again. By the grace of God, make men virtuous again.
