Hammer and Sickle over Equestria, or why I believe Equestria to be communist paradise · 3:22pm Jul 27th, 2016
I had a positively wonderful argument with Jordan179, which has left me somewhat excited and willing to troll him a bit more.
Given his crude jabs about the history of my country, which I find too distasteful to even retaliate against, I decided to outline my views on why I think Equestria is a communist country.
Now I must straight away admit this is not exactly the communism of Lenin and Stalin, nor the one Marx and Engels have envisioned in their Manifesto, and not even that of Noon-verse that was born of the glorious utopian science-fiction by Strugatsky brothers (though rather close to that one), but it is still a highly socialized country.
What do we know of Equestria from canon show?
1. It's a monarchy. Exact role of Celestia in ruling the country is rather ambiguous, but there at least exists an institute of monarchy and there is a lot of idle bourgeois who seem to enjoy high lifestyle despite not doing anything productive.
2. It has a private property, private capital and even moderate ownership of means of production in case of Apples, Rarity, Flim-Flam and Filthy Rich as well as numerous other ponies that we see owning shops and restaurants.
Those two would point us towards a monarchy (more likely an unlimited one since no one votes in the show) with a capitalistic underpinning, where the proletariat struggles under the iron hoof of their capitalistic exploiters.
But despair not, my comrades, for that is only the outer surface of what really is going on in Equestria!
Consider this: Equestria has manageable, centralized weather control. Since it is non-excludable non-rival good with positive externalities, it must therefore be provided by government and paind by through taxes. Either it is done directly by governmental agencies or it is done though sub-contracting, and we can be pretty sure that it is the former, not the latter.
Why? Because when Celestia sends Twilight to oversee the Summer Sun Celebration, Twilight goes directly to Rainbow Dash regarding the state of weather in Equestria, and a strong implication is that Princess can give Twilight authority over weather in Equestria. If it were a subcontractor, she would have to go through either the instances of the corporation and RD's supervisor if the purchase of weather services is centralized, or even through Mayor Mare if the purchase is done on hamlet and town level.
Likewise, Wonderbolts (which are at least proto-military institution) supervise and decide on the more centralized and labour-intensive weather duties, such as Tornado Duty, which again implies strong governmental involvement and likely direct control over weather, which only makes sense.
Since weather is centralized, then it must be the case that the agriculture is heavily, if not directly controlled, since food growing is entirely dependent on weather conditions. It is not controlled directly by the government, but that is a rather moot point - they will only grow as much as the weather allows, not more, and unlikely less.
Consider now Fluttershy. Fluttershy lives on her own, and since she is obviously not independently wealthy and does not draw on her parents for allowance (as we can now be perfectly sure thanks to the Flutter Brother episode), she must be making money somehow. She is a local vet, probably, and she does provide pet-sitting services and the like, but I would pose that that is not really sufficient to afford a house and all the medicine and food for the pets and beasts she routinely works with for apparently no charge.
The solution to this conundrum again lies in the centralized government. Equestria being a moral government cannot in good consciouseness allow it's citizens to go without medical help, and clearly species that are not fully sapient (Harry the bear, Angel the bunny) or are disadvantaged by lack of magic (donkeys and cows and sheep) should not suffer for it. This is of course only possible when there is a single-payer system and universal medicare.
This also allows to overspend significantly on meidicine, which is why Poniville, a hamlet of at most few thousand ponies can afford a three-story three-wing hospital with all the facilities we see in the "Read it and Weep" episode.
Thus medicine is centralized, and food production and the weather, so one has to wonder what else may fall under governmental purview? One could easily pose that it's education - we see Scootaloo attending school despite her famously being orphan in fanon, and moreover there is never any word of payment when Zephyr attends his haberdashery courses or of Marble Pie affording a rocktorate. And then there is a matter of quite lavish summer camp facilities, rather reminiscent of the amazing soviet pioneer camps like Artek. Likewise the myriad extracurricular activities attended by the Cutie Mark Crusaders with no word of pay or compensation (and that including Scootaloo and perpetually money-starved Apple) are reminiscent of free extracurriculars widely available in the good old USSR.
Similarily it's likely that post is also taken care of by the government (since we don't see Derpy having any corporate logos wherever she flies), and probably many more. On that note it's worth noting that there is hardly any advertisement at all, even in Manehattan, hinting to us that this atavism of bourgeoise culture is next to gone in the advanced society of Equestria.
Now let us also consider the town of Poniville. This small town seems to support not only two luxury shops, a food market and a super-market, a quills and sofas shop (that on occasion runs out of quills), three professional musicians (that we know of) and many more facilities I would not expect to see in a town of hundred thousand humans.
As the CinemaSins guy has noted, the town of few thousand souls should consider itself lucky if they have a traffic light and a seven-eleven.
How can we resolve this? Well, one must necessarily conclude that most of those facilities run at a loss, and probably a non-inconsiderable one at that, which then implies that their owners run them not out of business consideration and are not dependent on the profit from their shops as their primary source of income. In short, they exist on some form of governmental stipend or unconditional income.
It is also worth noting that every citizen of Poniville is beholden to government mobilization on communal projects, be it Tornado Duty, Running of the Leaves or Winter Wrap-Up. That is clearly a shout-out to the Soviet tradition of "subbotnik", wherein a community would undertake local improvement and maintenance projects on a semi-voluntary basis, at little or no compensation.
If that fails to persuade you, let us then consider the greater reality of Equestria, and namely the cutie-marks.
What are cutie-marks? In short it is a magical aptitude and a magical compulsion (or rather a true desire manifest though magic) to do a certain work, and draw enjoyment from it in itself, void of any material gratification that may or not may follow, or in short, exactly how Marx defined what labor should be.
Since pony would want to do what his or her cutie-mark is telling him, regardless of market forces, and since ponies with cutie-marks that are not geared towards currently required labour would still need to be supported and cared for, one must therefore conclude that the old communist adage of "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need" is what governs equestrian in their distribution of ponies in labor, not market forces.
This cannot be overemphasized. Lack of cutie-marks, or whatever the human analog could be is exactly what doomed, and will doom any attempts of human-based communism. Humans require material gratification for their labor, and will work less and work worse if they do not receive it, and when done centralized distribution of human by human planners works much worse than the haphazard ways of the invisible hand of the market. But for ponies - for ponies there is no such problem. Their distribution to labor market is governed by destiny itself and their work is its own reward, a reward nopony would exchange on whatever riches you may offer her, thus causing everypony to always work to the best of their abilities.
Finally consider the protagonist of the show, Twilight Sparkle. While she is a Princess, that does not seem to bring her any entitlements, properties or land, until she receives them magically in form of the Castle of Frienship. No, her status of Princess, her high-level magical powers and her general abilities are not monetized or rewarded materially at all. Again - she gives what she can to greater Equestrian society and receives from it according to her needs, as a paragon of communism should, Princess or not.
Taking all of this into account, we must then conclude that while this is not yet the final social formation prophesied by Marx and promised by comrade Stalin, it is well on it's way towards it, and the superficial similarities to the older forms where there still exists exchange of money and ownership of private property is but an atavism upon the impending and inevitable communisation of Equestria, currently merely in its transitive form which I like to call "cutie-Marxism".
I used to think that Equestria was, if not socialist, at least a social Democracy on par with Sweden. But looking over the whole show including the more recent seasons, it's pretty obvious Equestria has a really weak central government. I wouldn't be surprised if they are a confederacy where the mayors of each town exercise significant control.
The main evidence of that is the huge economic and technological disparities between some cities and others. Manehatten and Canterlot are both shown as very wealthy, and Manehatten in particular has technology almost as advanced as ours (modern suspension bridges, skyscrapers, telephones). Then look at small towns like the town in the Fire Swamps or the compounds of the Hooffields and the McColts: Poor as dirt and using 18th century technology. Equestria has a higher GINI coefficient (i.e. there is a bigger gap between rich and poor) than Brazil! That usually comes with a weak central government that stays out of major industries.
Yes, weather control is run out of Clousdale, but there's no evidence the cities aren't purchasing different levels of service independently. Certainly Appeloosa looks like it could use more rain, but it can't afford it. Equestria has monetized weather!
Fluttershy is definitely a government-paid park ranger, but it seems equally likely she's paid by Ponyville than Canterlot.
And why is Ponyville so rich, that they can afford the best hospitals, send orphans to school, and have all those fancy restaurants and high-end shops? Simple: Rich Canterlot tourists come visit and spend their money there on the first stop down the mountain! We see ample confirmation of this with Fancy Pants visiting parties thrown by the local business elite, and Mayor Mare makes it explicit by having Rarity throw a "small town chic" festival to impress a visiting travel writer considered trendy by Canterlotians.
Ponyville is a playground for the rich of Canterlot, soaking up their excess wealth and spending some of it on excellent local public services.
4117668
Well, that's a good point, but it is flawed:
First of all, you cannot judge the level of life by the apparent level of technology, since that seems to be entirely by choice. Poniville does non-magical Winter Wrap-Up not because they don't have enough unicorns, but because it's a tradition. Manehattan does the big-town thing, Appleloosa is intentionally styled for Wild West etc. It's clearly a choice, rather than necessity, otherwise you'd have an inconsistent mish-mash of jury-rigged whatevers they could scrounge up like IRL Cuba, not theme-park-level consistency.
Note that seemingly "desert"-themed Appleloosa has zero problems setting up and keeping a giant, thriving apple orchard, so they're hardly water-starved, merely keeping up the appearances for the sake of chosen style.
There are of course some brave pioneers who ignore the reasonable way of doing things and strike out on their own (Apples who founded Poniville clearly refused any help from Canterlot out of pride even when nearly starving not a few trots away from the capital or Hooffields that just literally throw away everything they have at each other pointlessly), but those are again, clear exceptions..
Ah, but we do see similarities in other places as well. The "pet-rock-pouch" shop in Manehattan (hardly a profitable enterprise), a free education for Marble Pie and Zephyr (who are hardly wealthy and do not live in Poniville), Flight Camp in Cloudsdale for Rainbow Dash (who may come from an incomplete family) and Fluttershy (who is a daughter of a blue-collar factory worker and a housewife) etc.
Well, that one I believe I rebuffed. Were Mayor Mare independently to subcontract weather services of Poniville, then it would have been a private enterprise, and neither Wonderbolts nor Celestia would have any direct authority over them, and that is clearly not the case.
It is a federative conglomerate, true, with local power excercising big independence in taking decisions, but there is still a huge redistribution of wealth going on, with government (local or federal) owning the most crucial, if not all, means of production.
4117699 "They choose to live in poverty" seems a pretty big stretch. Yeah, the different towns represent different settings to a certain extent, but you really think the ponies of the Fire Swamps are living in sodden mud huts instead of modern buildings with plumbing and electricity because it feels more authentic to them? Appleloosa isn't just enjoying a rustic outdoorsy feel, pioneers were pioneers because they were poor back home and wanted to be rich landowners where the land was cheap. When they acted like they would starve if those apple orchards were taken down, they weren't choosing to embrace a different tradition. I don't see Canterlot offering the Apples of old any help beyond the deed to the land in question.
Manehatten is of course the center of their version of Wall Street, so the fact that it has one specialty store that sells rock pouches doesn't surprise me. Nor the fact that the Pie Family, who own their own mine with magical crystals, can afford to send their daughter to get a fancy education. The fact that Fluttershy's dad is a bigwig at the Cloud Factory and his mom has who-knows-what job certainly explains how Zephyr got to go to Mane Therapy school, though you'll notice he seems to rely entirely on his family for support, rather than any kind of government program like unemployment insurnace.
4117714
Well, you then must assume that Celestia would be OK with ponies starving to death not half an hour's flight from her castle, which I cannot at all accept. I do believe where Apples to swallow their pride and ask for Princess' help it would be surely provided, it was just that they were too darn stubborn to do it.
There was never actually implication that they would starve and die. They said it was "unfair" because they put a lot of work in their orchard, and that's true enough, but it was not implied to be a life-or-death question.
He's also not too starved for someone who was homeless and unemployed for some length of time. Obviously life in a home would be better than whatever room-and-board government would provide, but again - he is rather unlikely to have to live in the streets or die of hunger, save for his own stupidity. That'd be out of character for Equestria. And again - no word of payment for education, even though he already flunked at least once.
Notice as well, that there are a lot of frontier towns which does somewhat explain the disparage in the levels of living. While communist government would like to give everyone every possible amenity, it is occasionally simply unfeasible, especially for the pioneers and first settlers, which do include Appleloosa and Fire Geyser Swamps.