Upon abolishing private property, wages would also have to be abolished along with it
Collectivists begin by proclaiming a revolutionary principle—the abolition of private property—and then they deny it, no sooner than proclaimed, by upholding an organization of production and consumption which originated in private property. They proclaim a revolutionary principle, and ignore the consequences that this principle will inevitably bring about. They forget that the very fact of abolishing private ownership of the means of production must launch society into absolutely new channels; must completely overthrow the present system of production, both in its aim as well as in its means; must modify daily relations between individuals, as soon as the means of production are considered common property. They say, ‘No private property’, and immediately after strive to maintain private property in its daily manifestations. ‘You shall be a commune as far as it regards the means of production, all that has been invented up till now, all are yours. Not the slightest distinction will be made concerning the share of each in this collective property.
‘But from tomorrow you will minutely debate the share you are going to take in the creation of new machinery, in the digging of new mines. You will carefully weigh what part of the new produce belongs to you. You will count your minutes of work, and you will take care that a minute of your neighbours should not buy more than yours. ‘And as an hour measures nothing, you will weigh the energy you have expended. You will accurately calculate the years of apprenticeship in order to appraise the amount each will contribute to future production. And this—after having declared that you do not take into account their share in past production.’ It is evident that a society cannot be based on two absolutely opposed principles, two principles that contradict one another continually. And a nation or a commune which would have such an organization would be compelled to revert to private ownership of the means of production, or to transform itself into a communist society.
References
- Kroptokin, Peter. (1892). The Conquest of Bread Chapter 13. The Collectivist Wages System (p. 221).