Enquiry

Interesting article from the Boston Globe (possible free registration demanded) on the growing influence of capitalism on the Israeli kibbutzim.

As of December 2006, 61 percent of kibbutzim were paying differential salaries to their members and more than 20 percent had decided to transfer ownership of kibbutz houses from the collective to the members who live in them. At Gan Shmuel, north of Tel Aviv, the kibbutz leased large tracts of agricultural land to developers for a shopping mall and McDonald’s. At Ein Gedi on the Dead Sea, the kibbutz guest house is now managed by an outside company that employs kibbutz members.

Voluntary socialism is tricky. To remain voluntary, it needs continuing ideological conformity. The more differences between people, the harder it is to cooperate, and the more the minority feels tyrannized by the majority.

Voluntary socialism may exist when conditions are ripe for it, but as new opportunities present themselves, and new challenges develop, people will find themselves not always thinking in step. Some will choose to start owning property and trading in the marketplace. Socialists then faces the choice whether to fight the tide and repress capitalism, losing the voluntaryst element of their society, or embrace the inevitable pull of the market.