Why does communism not work?

Question

Why does communism not work? It is based on the simple principals of equality that everyone can appreciate. Is it just the human factor that causes it to fail?

Answer 1

Communism DOES work. We see it working all the time.

You may have heard of something called a 'credit union'. Its function is identical to that of a bank. But unlike a bank, it is literally owned by people who deposit money in it. Technically, you are buying a share of the company instead of depositing your money in an account. And as the company gains money, it is distributed to its owners... you and me and whoever else has an 'account'.

That's about as communist as you can get. Everybody owns part of the means of production. All accounts are treated identically, so there is no 'class' or 'state'. If every company and government worked in this way, I don't see that you would have any special difference between that and even some of the more formal definitions of communism.

Nor are credit unions the only example. There are many nonprofit corporations that operate on a similar business model. Insurance companies, car manufacturers, national health care systems, etc, etc. Some of these fail like any system, but some can and are doing quite well.

As to WHY they fail... they have many of the same potential (not necessary) problems as any organizational system. Corruption, bureaucracy, inefficiency, and corruption. And have I mentioned corruption yet? This is why people tend to confuse communism with totalitarianism of various stripes.

Answer 2

Watch Enemy at the Gates. It's WWII from the point of view of the Russians and towards the end there is an interesting discussion of why Communism doesn't work.

This one character explains that Communism is destined to fail because, no matter how hard you try, someone will always be wealthier than someone else. In the movie the "wealth" is the love of a particular woman. The example is that the unloved guy becomes irrationaly gealous and can't be happy with what he has.

Basically, communism will always go down hill because people are selfish and greedy. Communism is supposed to give everyone the same but someone has to make those decisions. It's just a matter of time before they start giving themselves better stuff and from that moment the end is inevitable.

I could get into economoic theory to explain why central planning doesn't work but that would take a long time. Suffice to say that a national economy is faaaaaaaar too complex to be planned. Free markets are the most efficient way for a nation to use its resources. Since communism is the exact opposite of a free market, it is inefficient.

Answer 3

State communism focuses the power in the hands of a few. It also has relied on violent revolution more often than not to attain power. It is naive to think that revolution can sweep away all forms of domination; whenever we wish to resist power we must use power to resist that power. In the end we are still stuck with power which easily translates into oppression. Overthrowing bourgeosie morals and norms requires a new system of morality, and this new system sets up norms which, especially when concentrated in centralized organizations, lay the ground for the next generation of oppression. Maybe some sort of libertarian communism (local, not state, control over production methods) as envisioned by some communitarians and anarchists would be more successful than state communism has been. I am not sure. But centralized power and the belief that resisting power does not itself require the use of power have been two of the main reasons for the failure of state communism. Maybe these problems aren't insurmountable, but they have been a part of most if not all centralized communist systems.

Answer 4

Communism does not work because it ends up being two extreme classes. First the working man and woman where a doctor gets the same pay as a bus driver. The masses are poor with little incentive to hope for anything better.
The Communist party leaders on the other hand are well off and life a good life, they say they deserve it because of their position in the Communist party. Thus, to me there is NO such thing as Communism.

As I said there is a lack of incentive for the working class.
As in democracy a person can work harder and make more money. Thus challenging others to excellence. The lack of rewards makes a lazy society.

How many people are trying to smuggle in to Russia because they want a better life there. Zipo probably

Humans are not capable of being communal. It is in us to want to do and be better.

Answer 5

Communism doesn't work because it does not recognize the inherent drives, needs, and characteristics of human nature. It is manifestly unfair to use the force of government (made up of people) to seize what one person has worked for and hand it over to another. People will never be identical in every aspect (not even identical twins). They have different levels of ability, motivation, work ethic, skills and intelligence. Some have a natural ability to see business opportunities and make the most of them while many others do not.

And we need all kinds. If one person is more successful than another, it is just---what you sow you reap. It can also inspire some people to work more diligently. Free market capitalism puts the choices into the hands of the people in thousands of individual choices and decisions every day and provides a higher standard of living, true freedom, and innovation. Communism, like the obamataxnotcare, puts decisions for the many in the hands of a few politicians who usually know nothing about the business and who are only concerned about their power and ideology however they may coat it with shiny covering. Every communist regime has destroyed thousands to millions of lives--physically and economically, and has collapsed of its own inefficiency and corruption, and used force to maintain itself in power. If something is good, you don't have to force people to buy it.

One of communism's essential principles is not valuing the individual, but pitting groups against each other. Wage workers against managers and property owners. In a free market, wage earners can also own property in the form of homes, land, stock, and small businesses. In communism, the real winners are the state and they drag down the productive people who are the innovators, to the lowest level, to keep them from sharing power or competing with them.

You can best determine where to spend and give your money and time and resources, not a communist bureaucrat.

Answer 6

Commnuism is based on a concept of equally shared responsiblity and rewards. This can actually work in a very small number of production situations, where no specialization is required. Outside of a few small farming activities specialized skills are needed which requires planning and organization. Since the workers are all considered equal, the managers dissociate from the workers forming a multitiered class society that eventually becomes a socialist government. This results in a social stratification that causes a breakdown between the socialist governing class and the communist worker class and prevents the rulling class from being responsive to the workers needs. As the schism widens, the worker class turns to the black market (which is extremely capitalistic) to provide for their needs that the official government is unable or unwilling to provide. The Black marketeers become a de-facto government and the official government falls because is has outlived its usefulness.

Answer 7

Their are two types of communism. Economic communism and tribal communism. Economic communism is doomed to failure on many counts, mostly the foibles of human nature.

Tribal communism does and has worked for many thousands of years.The reason communism won't work on a large scale is because it requires everybody to participate. Sooner or later you will find those that want to skate on the efforts of others while they do nothing. Much like today. That is why the effort is now toward the welfare state, a modified form of communism more accurately called socialism.

Socialism will work if two things are allowed, a capitalistic political system and the allowance of those who don't participate to have a "ground floor" of social benifits. Mostly, it's just to get them out of the way of the working folks and the capitalists. Sort of the cost of doing business. It makes crime unnecessary. (why commit a crime to get what you get for free anyway?) As for drugs, If you won't take rehab, you get all you want until you die and then you're out of the system. In short, make easy for them to OD. All drugs would be controlled by the state. Pentaly for manufacturing or disturbuting drugs w/o a license would be mandatory death. But why do it? You can't compete with the state who gives them away.

Answer 8

Communism doesn't work for the same reason Capitalism does. It's all about greed. People are always going to want more money, but the central philosophy of Communism, is that everybody is equal and gets the same. In Capitalism we can take what we want, whenever we want. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer. 59% of the world's wealth comes from a handful of people, all who live in the United States. (I've read this statistic before, and I'm not sure if it entirely true)

Answer 9

One of the reasons, I think, is that the theory and practice of communism is highly complex, too ideal and mechanization-oriented to decent, rational and human citizens worldwide. Looking back in history, we can see 'democracy' has long evolutioned from Greek scholars some 2500 years ago while the concept of communism reached its inception by Karl Marx who wrote its manifesto in London around 150 years ago, it's not the same story regarding each evolution. One more thing, from what I read and understand, 'democracy' generalizes love, wisdom and respect, etc. whereas 'communism' generalizes hatred, bias and humiliation, etc. to humanity.

Answer 10

Because all humans are selfish at heart, and only want what benefits them. Sounds negative, but it's a part of us that has been around since the caveman days. Would YOU let a wild animal kill you because it looks hungry and needs food more than you do? No person whould ever permit themselves to experience discomfort for someone else unless they knew that person and were willing to take discomfort for their sake, like Jesus. But no mortal would ever want to be a martyr, unless they knew they would benefit. So yeah, it's a human factor, but a good one.