If Marx were alive today he would likely say that schemes like the Lottery are simply a long term entertainment and confirmation to the bourgeois that they should remain in charge because if everyone had their money the economy would fail due to everyone outside of the privileged classes spending it all and not using it wisely, this confirms what they thought already and continues the status quo. The added issue is, it is not just the lottery but things such as the Universal Basic Income, UBI on paper is a great idea as it does in theory get rid of economic inequality but all it does in Marx's eyes is do the bare minimum to make life easier under capitalism. The capital given out during UBI is not enough to further oneself in Capitalism, as investing in the markets requires some degree of education in how they work and that is not taught in public schooling, the reason its not taught in public schooling is because the upper classes want to keep the in-flowing capital to themselves, they hark on about loving competition but in practice they don't, by keeping the working classes outta the socio-economic ladder all they do is keep the poor poorer and themselves richer. Handing out large sums of money to working class people is no skin off of the ruling classes back as they know the working classes are just going to spend it on expensive stuff, stuff that the ruling classes own the production of so the money the poor spend goes back to them, so on top of actually fuelling the upper classes it keeps the system in a perpetual cycle.
The Ism's in which Capitalism are manipulated and twisted to make life easier either on the working classes such as Social Democracy and Democratic Socialism, or the upper classes such as Fascism and Conservatism simply manipulate the tools of the upper classes rather than punish or restrict the rule of them. Social Democracy is the most popular amongst the working classes as it brings in things such as Progressive tax codes, Free healthcare and free education into the realm of the working classes. But this is not enough in order to balance out the gap in wealth between the working classes and the upper classes, since in regards to free education what ends up occurring is that when tuition's go down, the standard of education also goes down. Now, Conservatives reading this, i am not calling for tuition fee's, quite the contrary. I am calling for the abolition of money all together, because if money was abolished then the educational facilities would be free to outline their curriculum according to the jobs available at the time in their communities as well as teach the skills needed by the students to go into whatever job market they wanted to go into.
We've all heard that Communists wish to make everyone equally poor, but this is a ridiculous statement that almost makes itself redundant. Communists like me aren't trying to make everyone poor, Communists believe that material possessions don't make a man rich or happy, they simply give him the means to communicate to his fellow man. This idea of material possessions is wrong and the idea that you need wealth to be taken seriously in society is also wrong, humans are naturally social creatures, by driving a wedge between people in the way of wealth accumulation you are creating a war amongst normal people. If you get rid of the means that people accumulate wealth from eg money, then you get rid of the wedge that creates things such as classism, sexism, racism and so on. By getting rid of money and allowing the working man to run his business with his comrades and have his basic needs met simply by helping his community then you get rid of the stress created by Capital. If you define your life by the material possessions you own then you are going to be a very lonely and sad person for the rest of your life. Like Bob Marley said:
"The greatness of a man is not in how much wealth he acquires but in his integrity and his ability to affect those around him positively"
Listen man, you might disagree with Marxist-leninism but it's not capitalism. Cuba has a planned economy and private property has been outlawed.
Marx would probably call that "the lower stages of communism"(read crtique of the gotha program) this is what is commonly refered to as socialism per lenins redefining of the term.
Anyway, the only people who claim to have reached communism were Anarchists in Ukraine, and that doesn't hold up to critical examination.
We live in capitalism right, so the only two ways power can be achieved (let's not kid ourselves we want socialists to gain power) is by aquireing capital or violence. I think the former actually can work.
Violence is seen by the general population as a negative, right. The masses at this moment in time aren't supporting a socialist revolution, so there is no hope for a violent struggle.
So we've got to play the capitalist game in order to gain control of the means of production and political power.
It's not even a factor of me not liking the theory of Marxism-Leninism, its more down to the pompous attitudes a lot of MLs have. I don't agree with what happened in Ukraine and i wouldn't call that Communism despite me being a platformist anarchist, i don't think the way that makhno went about it was the right way nor was it the right circumstance to carry out that kind of revolution especially when you have the USSR keeping an eye on you. I used to be a Marxist-Leninist, i know that Cuba is different but what i am getting at is China, Cuba, etc all have monetary exchange of some kind, I don't think communism has ever really been tried, and sure thats a pretty leftcom thing to say but i genuinely see that, not even by anarchist standards has it been tried and attempted. I associate Socialism as being joint at the hip with Social Democrats, When Socialists back Social Democrats it destroys any hope of them being taken seriously. Also i wouldn't say there is 100% no support for a violent uprising, that completely depends on where you are, and i'm pretty sure if you put the effort in, it wouldn't take long for people to back it, since from what ive found when ive spoken to people is that they're against violence until they understand the goal and logic behind the means, i don't see MLs doing much to correct the brainwashing by the liberal states who wish to keep the status quo.