Re:The vast but little-known fund of the Mormon Church
by 0xcde4c3db on Saturday February 08, 2020 @06:36PM
(#22279379)
As often happens in discussions of political and economic systems, you're comparing an idealized concept of one side to the history of the other side; of course the history side looks worse.
ETA: it occurs to me that there's a parallel here to the fundamental attribution error: my favorite system has flaws because its fundamental principles haven't been fully realized, while other systems have flaws because their fundamental principles are bad. Anyway, it's a pattern to watch out for.
Re:The vast but little-known fund of the Mormon Church
by lcall on Saturday February 08, 2020 @07:54PM
(#22279705)
The law of consecration has been tried, so there is history: while pioneers were crossing the plains (common efforts to care for the migrating poor, planting crops other later travelers would harvest, etc), one source being a somewhat new book "Saints", new chapters of Vol. 2 still being released, with citations to much source material. Also, Orderville (wikipedia references include Orderville, United Order, and Law of Consecration). There are probably others.
Edit: none of this says people are perfect, but that this aspect of Christianity is very different from communism. (I had a whole semester class on Stalin, and also some limited reading since.)
Re:The vast but little-known fund of the Mormon Church
by wincy on Saturday February 08, 2020 @07:48PM
(#22279679)
I think (but might be wrong) that Mormons did live the law of consecration when they first settled in Utah.
Found a link about the United Order in the early church. Sorta worked? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Order
I learned some things about communism, read a number of books about individuals' experiences, from various countries, for a little while majored in Russian history at a university in the midwestern/central USA, reading, watched many Soviet films, etc., and my mother has a degree in Asian Studies and knows Mandarin, etc etc of various family studies & travel, and communism seems consistently, across time and place, to be a combination of attractive words with a murderous horror of physical and mental abuse and control over individuals and any group that might not be in favor with those in power.