My How-Close-Are-We-to-Communism Scorecard

In the Communist Manifesto, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels put forth their 10 demands. These basically outline the vision of what specifically a Communist state would look like.

Here they are with my assessment as to their progress in the United States:

1. Abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to public purposes. (10%)
2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax. (95%)
3. Abolition of all right of inheritance. (35%)
4. Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels. (20% – difficult to assess because of the definition of “rebel”)
5. Centralization of credit in the hands of the State, by means of a national bank with State capital and an exclusive monopoly. (100%)
6. Centralization of the means of communication and transport in the hands of the State. (5%)
7. Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the State; the bringing into cultivation of waste-lands, and the improvement of the soil generally in accordance with a common plan. (24% – granted, not agriculture, but I am using percent of GDP that is government)
8. Equal liability of all to labor. Establishment of industrial armies, especially for agriculture. (16% – toughest one to assess)
9. Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual abolition of the distinction between town and country, by a more equitable distribution of the population over the country. (15%)
10. Free education for all children in public schools. Abolition of children's factory labour in its present form and combination of education with industrial production. (100 %)

All-in-all I think we are 42 percent of the way there. Thoughts?