Is communism realistic?

Question

Always sounds great in theory. But most communist countries end up a dictatorship with many inhumane practices. What do you think?

Answer 1

Communism is a brilliant concept. It really is. However, it doesn't work once you bring human beings into the equation. Greed, power, lust, envy, jealousy etc etc. Shame, really.

Answer 2

I don't think most Communist countries end up in a dictatorship, I think all countries under Communism quickly become a dictatorship.

If you compare some of the tenants of Christianity and Communism, it's similar, not the same but similar.

Communists countries never were able to deliver the promises they made to their people. There isn't many Communist countries left in the world. Perhaps we should declare them an endangered species.

East Germany was a communist state and the leaders gave a celebration to their communist rule. The whole country was invited and nobody came. About that time President Reagan said, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall." And, Berlin was never the same. Or, perhaps we could say, because of that, Berlin was once again, the nearly same.

China still practices their brand of Communism but in the end, it's merely a label to any dictatorship's style of rule which slaps the label of Communism on their government. What's happening there is a slow process of changing from within. They have become such an economic power-house that business is dominating the military and in the end, the changes will come because WalMart spends more money on Chinese made products than all other countries spend on buying Chinese made arms.

Answer 3

No. In fact there has NEVER been a truly communist country. Communism means that all people are equal and all people have the same things. You don't have a leader in a rolls royce while the "average party member" starves slowly.

We have a fondness apparently for calling governments what they are NOT. An example is that America is not a democracy. In a democracy everyone votes on everything. That means each and every new law would have you truckin down to the voting booth to give your opinion. We are actually a socialist representative republic.

Neither true communism, nor true democracy has ever succeeded.

Answer 4

There have been several interesting examinations of the topic, but all tend to agree that communism is a deeply flawed and failed mental exercise.

One thing that the two authors failed to take into consideration is the need for certain conditions to exist for production to exist in the first place. This is where it fails in each and every real world application.

No nation that attempted to apply the fundamental values of communism survived it with any degree of progress. And most that claimed to be communist were thinly concealed dictatorships that did not value human rights.

Answer 5

Instead of working for the common good, in capitalism, the average working people are forced to work for the longest length of time and at the lowest wage possible, so that the largest amount of profit produced by the real labor provided by the average workers may be funnelled to the owners of the capital who control the vast majority of assests. It is essentially slavery, except the worker does have rights and is able to sustain a decent standard of living if economic conditions are favorable. If these conditions deteriorate, then the kings of capitalism will be sitting high on the hill while the working class perish below. Capitalism is essentially an economic system designed by aristocrats, for aristocrats. Don't be foolish and assume otherwise.

Answer 6

It does sound great in theory. The problem is that with evil corrupt people in the world it will never work in practicum. The government will always need to be in complete control of the thoughts and ideas of the governed for it to really work. The Internet makes this impossible.

Pray for the poor people in North Korea.

Answer 7

The theory of communism is fairly sound. Everyone works for the greater common good. If it's bad times, everyone suffers the same. If it's good times, everyone prospers the same.

It's impossible to translate the theory of communism into a practical form of government because of several reasons, greed and laziness being the biggest. People want better than what they have, and don't want to have to work harder at it. They realize that their effort doesn't just profit THEM...only a tiny percentage of their effort comes back to them and the rest goes to everyone else. Why work harder at something when the effort will go to naught.

"Communism only works in Heaven, where they don't need it, and Hell, where they already have it." -- Ronald Reagan.

Answer 8

I think that if it worked so well there would be more communism but the fact that it has failed miserably over the past two decades sort of says it is a big no no to me!

Answer 9

My Marxist econ teacher could mathematically prove that capitalism would die under it's own greed, but he would never put communism under the same test.

Even though he had a PhD he would expound on the virtues of communism. He did tend to grade based on the degree one would regurgitate his spiel.

Answer 10

It's realistic, but unlike capitalism it is neither ecomically or personally satisfactory.

It can and has been implemented, but countries that did are soon poor.

Humans have an innate desire for competition as well as innate curiosity and creativity which communism stiffles.