The Toy Lightsaber, or How Communism is Supposed to Work

Yesterday, Mom and I went to Deseret Industries, a thrift store that is owned by, or at least friendly toward, our church. While I was there, I bought a pair of khakis, a pair of cargo pants, a pair of athletic shorts, and a T-shirt. The total price came to $9. What I did not buy (but was seriously tempted to buy) was a toy lightsaber.

Whenever I visit DI, I check out the toy section, mostly looking for Nerf guns (not much luck this time around), but this time, I found a lightsaber toy that's basically a bunch of plastic tubes that nest inside one another and latch in place when they're fully nested. By pushing a button and simultaneously swinging the lightsaber, you can extend the "blade" and start slashing your way through imaginary robots and aliens. It even has a clip that attaches to your belt for when you're not using it. I totally should have bought it. But I decided that someone else - someone probably much younger than myself - would probably enjoy it much more than I would have.

That's how thrift stores work. People say "I don't need this anymore, but someone else might," and they give it away. Thrift store employees sort the items, clean them up, and shelve them, usually charging customers just enough to keep themselves afloat. And people go there to find things that had been used by others but could now be useful to them.

In Sir Thomas Moore's Utopia, there's a description of something much like a thrift store, except that no one charges anyone anything. Everyone brings what they don't need, whether they made it themselves, or grew it on their farm, or whatever they have excess of, and they offer it freely to whomever may need it. At the same time, they browse the stalls to pick up whatever food, clothing, tools, or other useful items they may need. I've heard of "swap meets" where people do about the same thing, and I've always wondered "What's to stop a person from showing up with nothing and walking away with everything?" I got my answer yesterday. They just don't need it.

Yeah, I could have gotten that lightsaber. I had more than enough cash for it (It was only $1.50), and I probably would have enjoyed playing with it. I definitely enjoyed playing with it at the store. But I didn't need it, and I knew that someone else would enjoy it more than I would. Come to think of it, I have a drawer full of T-shirts that I never wear that I could probably donate to DI, to be sold (probably for only $1 or $2 each) to people who actually would where them, and the proceeds would go toward supporting the store where I buy most of my clothes and Nerf guns. A bunch of people get "new" shirts, like the new shirt I got yesterday, DI gets a few bucks for each of the shirts, and I get continued access to cheap clothes and Nerf guns. Everybody wins.

I hear bad stuff about communism, but I mostly think that it's because people don't know how to do it right. They have the mentality that I had when I thought about swap meets. People tend to want more than they need. I wanted that lightsaber, but I didn't need it. I could have gotten it, but I didn't. I left it for someone else because I knew it'd be of more use to them than it'd be to me. If everyone could learn to do that with everything, then communism (or the Law of Consecration, which I think is somewhat similar) might actually work. Until then, we have thrift stores and swap meets, which work out well enough for me.