Is the goal of capitalism to be able to afford Communism - Nanjie Village

[papau]

says yes!

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-village20jan20.story
COLUMN ONE
An Old Dogma's New Twist
Residents of the Chinese village of Nanjie have happily reverted to communism. The secret to their success? A hefty dose of capitalism.
By Ching-Ching Ni
Times Staff Writer

January 20, 2005

NANJIE, China — The sky is still black when the village loudspeaker blasts the revolutionary song "The East Is Red." A three-story-high statue of Chairman Mao looms over a Tiananmen-like square flanked by giant portraits of the socialist all-stars: Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin.

A new day has arrived in this commune on China's central plains where residents enjoy free food, housing, healthcare, schooling — even free weddings and funerals.

As the rest of China struggles with mounting social problems brought on by two decades of turbocharged economic reforms and vanishing social safety nets, the decidedly retro Nanjie seems to have found the answer to the good life. It is the best known of a handful of villages to return to the country's communist past.

Of course, its definition of the good life doesn't include what village bylaws deem "excessive living." Fancy restaurants, karaoke bars, music clubs and mahjongg are all forbidden. And though Nanjie is free of crime and unemployment, it is also free of all the trappings of personal freedom that are part of life for most Chinese citizens today.

At work, villagers study Mao Tse-tung quotations and attend self-criticism sessions. To marry, they participate in a group wedding held once a year in front of a giant portrait of the chairman. Then the village buses them off to a honeymoon in Beijing — because that's where Chairman Mao lived, a villager explained.

At home they sit on identical village-issued, natural-wood-frame sofas, watch the same TV sets and tell time on the same Mao clocks that are adorned with bright rays lighting up his face and the slogan "Chairman Mao is human, not God. But Chairman Mao's thoughts are greater than God."

"The only thing I had to buy myself was the microwave and these plastic tulips," said villager Wang Fenghua, 57.

Although the teachings of the "Great Helmsman" serve as the moral compass for the 3,100 people of Nanjie, the real secret to its collective well-being is, well, capitalist: two dozen village enterprises manufacturing all sorts of things — noodles, beer, pharmaceuticals. One even promotes "red tourism."

"The widening gap between the rich and the poor. Corruption. Crime. What is the root cause of all these social ills? Privatization. Our goal is to realize communism. But communism needs to make big money — only big money can make communism better. There is no contradiction in that," said Wang Hongbin, the 53-year-old village leader credited with lifting Nanjie out of poverty by marrying communist ideals with capitalist mechanics.<snip>