Can someone tell me the concepts of communism and command economy and why it didnt work in the soviet union?

Question

can some one explain the concepts of comunism and command economy and why it didnt work in the soviet union? could it ever work?

Answer 1

It didn't work because there isn't any incentive to work harder. If you have a farm and make 10 bales of hay the comi's will let you keep two and take 8. If you make 6 bales of hay, the comi's will let you keep 2 and take 4. If you produce 2, you get to keep everything. There is no incentive to work harder.

This combined with the fact that the cold war was all about spending and increasing you arms. It was only a matter of time before they collapsed

Answer 2

The reason it didn't work was that it failed to factor in some basic facts of human nature. Nobody had an any incentive to work hard because they received the same pay regardless. In addition, individuals actually make better decisions about what to do with their money because they have more detailed information and they have something to lose directly from their decisions. The central planning committee took away that ability, and because they possessed neither of those advantages, made poor decisions. And because manufacturers had nothing to be gained by producing high quality products in great quantities, production came almost to a halt, and as a result most people didn't have some of the basic luxuries that even the poorest Americans enjoy today.

In essence, communism was a giant miscalculation based on the mistaken belief that individuals would work for the good of society even if it resulted in no personal benefit, and that people are too stupid to take care of themselves.

Answer 3

That's a very confusing and vague question, but naturally the Authoritarian, centrally-planned economy brought the Soviet Union from a 3rd world nation whose economy was still heavy in agriculture...to a 2nd rate nation with a heavy industrial emphasis. This happened in a matter of decades under Stalin, which astonished the west, and made nations very popular to the idea of centrally-planned economies (which is why there was very few democratic and free-market nations around the 1938)

Answer 4

Communism is an ideology that seeks to establish a classless, stateless social organization, based upon common ownership of the means of production. It can be classified as a branch of the broader socialist movement.

Karl Marx had envisioned this kind of society emerging out of a capitalist society (owing to the failures of capitalism) but this has not happened, probably people have not been able to understand it properly and/or implement it properly.

I think Communism can never work because the 'greed' that is inherent in human nature can not be removed from all human beings all at once. Also I cannot comprehend a revolutionary dictatorship of the proletariat, where the people forming this proletariat can perform dictatorial role without making ill use of their power and make people think of and prioritise public welfare for greater good over personal welfare for individual good.

Answer 5

With communism you have an economy where the sole purpose of industry to make goods for society as a whole. Each person has a specific purpose and job to do. There is no personal gain. You work to make necessities available to everyone. This didn't really work because since you can get access to everything there is no need to work harder or excel, just getting by is enough, you'll always have what you need. Thus ones that work harder and have more knowlege gets exactly the same as the person who is lazy and uneducated.

Answer 6

Communism is goverment ownership of everything. There is no private property to speak of. The command economy means the govenment decides what you need and sets production goals for all products, usually as part of a "5 year plan". Trouble was the government wasn't the best judge of what was needed (or wanted) by the public. Plus, it's virtually impossible to guage demand for anything 3 or more years in advance, so demand always outstipped supply. That's why people in Russia used to stand in line for hours to buy mundane items like toilet paper and soap. As for why communism failed, as Frank Zappa so aptly put it, "It failed because people want to own stuff".

Answer 7

Well, I can describe one piece of the puzzle...
Wen every person was guaranteed a job, there was no more reason to do a good job. There also no more praise. Many people became depressed, alcoholoism was rampant, and people did not get the jobs done.
Compare this with unions and county jobs, wherein many long-term members do not very much, because they're practically guaranteed a job. Productivity goes down.
That right there is a good reason that communism doesn't work!

Answer 8

"From each according to his ability, to each according to his need" . Seems like a good idea but it is based on a twisted morallity. Where keeping what you produced is bad but mooching off the production of others is good.

It creates a downward spiral of moral decay. Because each person resents the others. If a person has one dollar more than you. Then you resent them because that dollar is rightfully yours. You fear the person who has one dollar less than you because that dollar is rightfully his. Guilt is with you throughout every minute of every day. There is not one mouthful of food that you eat that is not needed by someone somewhere worse than you. So you scrape by an existence, guilty of being alive.

Answer 9

I think someone has an economics essay that they don't feel like researching...lol

Answer 10

They didn't work because Russians are naturally lazy drunkards.