Any smart communists out there?

Question

ok i am a die hard capitalist. I am very much for free trade and what not and against the whole goverment run economy thing. I am wondering if there are any smart, reasonable communists that can explain there point of view on this, because I just can't see how anyone can really believe that will work. In order to save email time here are some pre question rebutals: 1)People don't want to work together and humans are ran by greed so, since capitalism works by everyone trying to get the most for themselves and end up contributing to society in the process, it works better. 2) communism is not an equalizer. in every communist group, excluding hippie communes, there is always diaspora between people. and i'm sure theres some more I can't think of right now

Answer 1

there are lots of market failures associated with capitalism, so its not that great. also with capitalism you gat rich and poor, the distribution of wealthe is very uneven. with communism there is a much more balanced distribution of wealthe and market failures are less frequent because the goverment can correct them without due delay.
at this piont i would like to say that i am not a communist i bilieve in a mixed economy where market forces fuel growth but goverment is on hand to fill the market where there is market failure such as healthe care etc

Answer 2

The theory goes along these lines: people are social creatures, and if we all work together, we can produce more than as individuals.

Secondly, everyone should be happy to contribute to the common welfare, and as long as everyone gets what they need, everyone should be happy.

Third, the market is an inefficient allocator of resources (take Paris Hilton for example - she has lots of resources, but has no idea what to do with them) and it causes incredible disparities of wealth and poverty. In a market economy, much of the wealth ends up in the hands of the few, and they get less utility out of it than if it were spread evenly (the utility given by one person not starving is much greater than the utility of buying that second car).

Finally, since markets are inefficient in distributing society's resources, the state should step in and help by directing what is produced and distributing it more or less evenly.

These are wonderful theories, and if you discount human nature, this system could work. There are a couple of problems with this. Humans always try to better themselves, even at the expense of others, and so we cannot trust them to behave altruistically all the time. Capitalism avoids this problem by assuming that everyone will act in their own best interest.

The second flaw in communism is that without an incentive to work, people in general will do as little as possible while still getting by. If I am going to be paid the same whether I make 5 units or 50, I certainly am not going to push to produce the extra 45. This is one reason why capitalist systems are more productive than communist ones. The main drivers of improved productivity that the Soviet Union and China realized once they became communist came from the transfer of labor from the inefficient farming sector to the undersupplied industrial sector. After these initial strong increases in productivity, productivity stalled as workers had no incentive to innovate or to work harder to produce more.

The final flaw in communism is that planned economies do not generally allocate resources as efficiently as capitalist ones. Generally, when there is an oportunity to increase production through the addition of labor or capital, someone will notice and move to take advantage of the opportunity. This is Adam Smith's "invisible hand" moving resources to where they will do the most good.

In communist systems, the central planning organization has to first of all become aware that a shift in resources will be beneficial, and then it has to plan to move resources from one area that it believes has excess resources to one that is underserved. Capitalism does this automatically as thousands of individual actors all look for opportunties to shift resources to better uses. Often in communist systems, resources are taken from an activity which is not inefficient to be put to other uses, while inefficient areas continue to receive the same level of support.


So communism, although a hopeful ideology that assumes the best of people, doesn't work as efficiently as capitalism, which takes into account humanity's selfish impulses and allows them to drive decision-making.

Answer 3

There are probably lots of them, with no soul. Evil as Stalin. never forget there are evil people out there.