It takes immense force to make people in a world of scarce resources act as though resources are hyper-abundant.

This is why Communism will always be authoritarian.

Imagine a simple tribe adopts violent revolutionary communism.

The great hunter slays a mighty beast.

Rather than surrender the lion's share, the tribe kills him.

Everyone's bellies are full.

But what happens in a few weeks or a month when the giraffe bones have been picked clean?

We need a new mighty hunter.

Communism requires infinite productivity that has transcended scarcity.

Karl Marx imagined communism only after a period of capitalism that produced immense wealth.

The meme of "fully automated luxury space communism" embeds the assumption that work is no longer required for wealth.

Imagine you possess a replicator from Star Trek, and can conjure up any food dish you can imagine for a negligible amount of energy.

Why should anyone go hungry?

We see this logic in modern Leftism, not just among communists but also among their less hardcore compatriots - democratic socialists, progressives, and the like.

"We are a rich society, surely we can afford universal healthcare."

"Why should anyone in the developed world go hungry?"

And so on...

These variants differ only in the range of goods which are to be given the illusion of hyper-abundance, and thus in the level of coercion required to make the populace play along.

Communism requires the whole populace to play along with the illusion of hyper-abundance for all goods, and therefore requires utter control.

This is not without its internal logic.

Given the assumption of infinite resources, it follows that those who are deprived are victims.

The rich and powerful could grant our wildest dreams (or most basic needs) at no (real) cost to themselves, but they choose not to.

If they could just be forced to share their infinite abundance, we would all live like kings.

Instead no human resource is actually hyper-abundant; even relatively abundant resources like water require scarce human effort and time to make useful.

Consequently, those who want to help the poor should ask how resources can be made more abundant.

Where does prosperity come from?

The Left has an answer to this as well, of course.

Exploitation!

The rich stole their wealth from the poor.

Perhaps some did.

But how come the poor are better off now than in the past?

If it's exploitation all the way down, how come the poorest parts of the world are getting richer?

Exploitation may be part of the story, but it can't be the whole story.

So where does prosperity come from?