So this is a thread about communism and it's potential in a human world. I have a friend who would like to see a world with a working, fair communist government. Is that even possible? U.S.S.R, for example pretty much rebelled on the backs of the peasantry then said, "You know what, screw the workers." The people up top controlled everything and imposed horribly unjust laws and caused much of it's population to die. China, did something similar, however instead of remaining mostly communist this government allowed capitalist economics but kept a dictatorial stranglehold on it's peoples freedoms to own land and speak freely. This is what the world knows as Communism. Is this what communism really is? The answer is no. These are just more examples of dictators manipulating people into giving them power and flying a false banner to unite people under them as they ascend to power. Communism is the simple economic system under which the central community not necessarily the government holds all the resources and distributes them equally to all people for putting into the metaphorical pot for everyone. This may sound good to some, terrible to others. On the one hand, everyone is equal, everyone gets the same amount and the community gets everyone's support. This has worked for smaller communities across the world, but whenever the size of this community goes up there are problems. However, on any scale the problem of equality of opportunity versus equality of results problem can arise. It's communist equality of results side is simply characterized as one person with a simple menial job ends up with the same assets and paycheck as a person who studied many hard years in medical school to become a doctor. ON the other end is the capitalist side where everyone can get any job if they're qualified to get it and that decides their pay, medical plan and retirement. This seems very appealing because all people wish to get ahead and have something. That leads to the second issue with communism, property. In a communist system the land belongs to the collective not the individual and as such no stealing can occur because you own nothing to steal to begin with. This gives rise to the problem of people wanting to have extravagances, which in communist societies cannot be obtained because they must benefit the group rather than one out of the group. On the other end the capitalist system is all about people buying, selling and generally exchanging goods and services. So, in that system it is a good thing for people to try to obtain extravagances that make life possibly more enjoyable. The final point regarding communism is the governing. In small agrarian societies that put this kind of system into play it was easy because everyone knew everyone else and they all decided together how to use the groups materials and labor. It was simple an worked out quite easily. However, in a country like Russia with the largest land area of any nation and at least inhabitants in almost every far flung corner this system of government won't work at all. So this give the people the decision of how the feel is best to govern this large group fairly. In almost all global cases thus far this has lead to dictatorial regimes. So what if the communist system was run by a democracy, where the majority ruled in the group and decided what was best for everyone else? It is hard to say because it has never successfully happened and there are far too many contributing factors in the equation to properly predict the outcome. So, is communism a better idea than capitalism? Does it go against human nature to ask people to care for the group over themselves? Can the competitive nature of humans destroy an otherwise workable system? Most of all, could communism ever work at a global or national scale?
I agree, and I know that essentially nothing would get improved without competition. I should've put in something about that. Oh well, live and learn, learn and forget.
All of the points that libregkd are very true, communism is perfect on paper but once the imperfections and flaws of humanity are introduced the entire system falls apart. The inherent differences in every one of us stop it working. Some people are natural leaders, and will want to be at the top telling other people what to do. On the flip side, there are people who want to be lead, who want someone else to tell them what to do (and in extreme cases, what to think too). People drift up and down the scale until the "equality" is destroyed.
Communism in theory CAN work. But it's the capitalistic and materialstic desire for higher pay that makes it impossible to work. Communism is a free, open society for everyone, assuming they won't take control, or are smart enough to do something like steal peoples stuff. This doesn't work because obviously in a communist society no one really learns anything, everyone just goes about doing their own thing and it ****s up the entire system.
A system of government can only be said to work if it is applicable to humans. Anything is else irrelevant. Robots and perfec t beings would not need a government.
Communism, as others have said, works on paper. It however does not work in reality without causing great pain to people and oppressing them. It is in our natures to want to become better than we are and work and have that work recognized. In communism, this does not happen. Also, why should everyone have the -same- things such as houses etc? Some people will work harder than others. Part of the working harder is for dreams. If you know you will never improve, why bother working so diligently? You get no rewards but what everyone else gets. It causes people to relax more and not give as much a care because 'someone' will do the work. And people can =say= that the land etc is theirs, but in reality we all know it is the government's to do with as it pleases. No one in communism can live all the same. The leaders are always going to be on a different scale than the regular folks are so seeing as they get better than others do, it makes people even more jealous. Communism just doesn't work with human nature. This is not to say it -never- works. There are smaller communities where people who have voices and mutually agree to share, grow together etc and appoint responsible people to jobs they want are fine with communism. In a way tribal communities often can work in such a manner and some Buddhist and/or Dao monks operate under this type of living. They all benefit and all can speak, all see the improvements and share when times are harsh. The reason this works though is you are dealing with a much smaller community that operates as a 'family' in a way and they all know what is going on and do their parts to contribute. There aren't a ton of people being misled or that have the potential of being misled and everyone knows what the 'parents' of the communist group are doing and can speak to the people at -any time-. This is the only scenario where communism can work painlessly. Otherwise, communism ends up stealing the rights of people because it knows that people will seek out to improve their living conditions and not like being contained under a strict government that forces them to the lifeway. However, I don't think straight out capitalism is the way either. While communism kills inspiration and the desire to have things etc, and causes a very big black market...capitalism brings out the bad in people too. Some people have no qualms about stomping on others to get what they want. They also can seem to enslave people for profit and pay out very crappy wages which is why we have a problem now with illegal immigrants and also why there was slavery in the first place. Communism tends to make -everyone- its slave to some degree while capitalism can make groups of people suffer extreme conditions compared to others and both are at fault for taking away rights from some people. Black marketing happens because people feel that they are obligated to have certain things and money can buy -anything- nearly. In capitalism, big corporations also act like governments and nations of their own and exploit smaller business and their workers while shunning responsibilities too. They can and have ruined natural things too and it takes time to reign them in from extreme stupidity. Some things found in both capitalism and communism is theft, black marketing though for different reasons, and unhappiness in general. and mistrust of government. In the end, I kind of feel some need for the positives of both systems and would be more 'socialist' I suppose in mentality as there are some things I think people should pay into and we get the same rights to. Some of these things include medical care, education, and simple luxuries such as electricity and clean water. Other things though, I think people -should- work for and have the dreams they can own big homes, cars, etc and all because why should we kill the dreams of people that are willing to work hard to achieve things? Corporations also should not be considered their own nations by any decree just because they can leave their home countries and mass produce in other countries and get special privileges. There are things wrong with the systems of both communism and capitalism and those things do need checked out more and people who are regular folks like us should have a voice in what our governments do have going on. In either system, the rights to investigate and fix governmental problems is an issue. Both also try to encourage people to not care or pay attention to what is really going on and we all get jaded at times.
