Can communism ever work in a practical long-term way?

Question

please give elaborate answers.

Answer 1

To start, there has never been a 'communist' nation state in the history of the world. Neither Russia nor China were ever communist, regardless of the label being slapped on them. Communism like any other system requires certain actions and programs that neither enacted. China was a Maoist Totalitarian expansion and the USSR was M/L socialist state.

Not every philosophy has to be applied to a nation-state status to judge whether it works or not. Case in point- one of the fundamental tenets of a communist system is the constant deconstruction of the state and dispersal of power throughout the people, while both China and Russia never achieved that, in fact, in both cases their state expanded, not reduced itself. So, if they don't meet the qualifications for being a communist system, how can anyone use them as examples to whether communism works or not- they didn't even fit the criteria.

Communism can works exceedingly well in small scale local experiments, but has never been achieved on a nation state level.

Stupid westerners (yes I am from north america) who think they know what communism is because they saw Rambo kill some of them in the movies, should not try to analyze world politics and ideologies before actually going out and learning about what those ideologies actually represent.

Communism has certain tenets it needs to meet before it can be 'communism'. And not once has any country met those requirements. We call countries communist because it is a convenient boogeyman to get ignorant people to rally around straw men and froth at the mouth about them. Most people have no real idea what most ideologies actually entail.

Answer 2

No, and it has been proven from history that communism cannot work in a practical way, neither will it be sustained artificially in the long term.

Communism was to make everybody equal in the society. It only works if everybody works equally hard and is united at heart. Unfortunately, not all people can work hard and produce exactly the same results. Therefore, some people will lose out and some will gain. The people who are less productive discover that they can get away with not working or doing less but still receive the same benefits as others. Therefore, overall productivity drops as more people realizes this. Which means that the system will then fail because soon, very few or no people will be working.

This proves that communism is not practical and will not work in the long term.

Answer 3

No chance. Sometimes people say "Well communism works in theory..." but that's false -- communism is a train wreck in theory just as in the real world.

There are lots of reasons, but my favorite is that in communism there is not a free market pricing mechanism, which means there is no efficient, productive way to allocate resources and provide incentives and disincentives to best meet human needs. A commie system is based on central planning, with some official or committee deciding how much of each product to produce, and how to allocate raw materials to make those things, where to distribute those goods, etc etc.

But for any society of more than a few people, those are immensely complex problems -- no committee could possibly collect and process all the information required to do that competently. (On the other hand, that's what a free market pricing system accomplishes very well, turning the whole economy and all of its producers and consumers into a supercomputer to solve these problems).

That's a reason why the Soviet Union went bankrupt and collapsed. There were constantly shortages of every day goods like bread and toilet paper, and their factories only destroyed value, taking in raw materials and producing worthless junk, and for 70 years the USSR was completely devoid of any innovation and invention. No society like that will last.

Answer 4

I doubt ANY human-powered government can last really long-term. Too much power to be used for the selfish motives at the top.
And any of the "first-world" countries - those countries have just built too many "things" and people there (here) lose touch with other people.


Sorry, can't elaborate too much...that sounds like YOUR homework. (Enjoy!)

(And since you're interested in Communism, if you want to discover the origins of it, I think these guys can give you some info... www.jewsagainstzionism.com )

Answer 5

No, if you read up on communism in USSR, China, and Cuba, Communism never works out in the long run. It leads to death, uprises, and the worst part: a lack of drive for success, competition and innovation. Socialism might be a little better, but pretty much same thang.

Answer 6

yes, provided that you don't compare against other countries. it does work in a bubble.

In the long term standards of living remain constant which is okay compared to the countries history but over decades means that the relative standard of living (ultimately what people base their richness on declines).

To say that it doesn't work is very short sighted. If it didn't work then communist Russia would of collapsed quickly not grown to challenge the USA. Indeed Russia's growth rates during the 1930's significantly surpassed the USAs because the communist system could more easily mobilize labor.

Answer 7

. Communism does not take into account the natural tendency for people to place the needs and wishes of themselves, their families, their kin and their friends above the goals of the state.
. For communism to work, a country would have to be lead by saints who governed over a population of saints.

Answer 8

No. It does seem like a good and plausible idea, but communism in truth only leads to suffering, torture and inevitably death to many. So, no, communisn can never work in the long-term.

Answer 9

No...even China wound up accepting a free market...they're still here. Communism has mostly died otherwise. According to Marx, it's end is "Utopia"...and think we all know by now that's only a fantasy.

Answer 10

as history has showed us, the answer to that question is no. it is a great idea in theory but it has just never worked out.