Thoughts and Notes on The Principles of Communism by Engels

Capitalism amplifies and exacerbates human struggle and suffering, creating new problems where they didn't exist before. Automation is inevitable, and humanity and industry must evolve with it. Some workers and industries will become obsolete (which I already knew). Wages are supposed to equal the minimum cost of living for workers but will fluctuate depending on the industry. Automation should imply that humanity needs to work less. Automation led to globalism, and now all nations are connected, for better or worse. Modern governments will almost always side with business over the needs of the people.

Wage slaves (workers only have value as long as there is a need for them in the industry) will continue to exist, and business will use automation to keep wages down and people unemployed. The only way to end slavery is to make all industry publicly owned. Individual contractors will promote wage slavery and must be abolished. Competition in the free market causes a cycle of recession and depression, occurring at least once a decade. Capitalism requires this to survive at the cost of human suffering. To eliminate this problem, all industry must be made public, and all workers should be unionized. Business will not surrender their industries to the public, and thus, business must be seized.

Humanity must come together as one communal entity. The biggest struggle will be getting the poor to accept it willingly. A new, democratic constitution must be made by the people, where all in a field receive the same wage, and all are obligated to participate in society. Everything will be centralized and improved, and everyone will be taken care of. Society will be run more like ancient native cultures where everyone had a role, and evolution and development will be based on human need. Humanity must change their mindset and evolve.

Elimination of private property will ensure that all people are equal and take care of each other. There will be no need for separate or segregated laws, as everyone will have the same civil rights. Religion takes the form of the need of the people and often creates division. Communism will see the elimination of religion as it will no longer be needed.

Pseudo (reactionary) socialists will side with industry over the people and only want the privileges of the elite, without actually caring about the suffering of all people. Red pill (reformist) socialists want to keep things the same while providing social safety nets but don't actually want to see society change. Democratic socialists will make temporary pacts with communists but their differences will cause them to side with industry against the people on occasion. They are essentially a frenemy, seeking to help and undermine the communist movement for their own personal interests.

Most of what Engels wrote is common sense to me, but there are those who don't understand what communism or even socialism is. This was written today, and it would be called "Communism for Dummies.