Is communism inherently a good idea?

Question

I am not too educated in this topic, but from what I know it seems that communism is a failed system because of human's individuality. People are competitive and don't want to be limited in what they can do. Other than this, is communism a good idea?

Answer 1

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You are partially right in what you say about human individuality being a problem in communism. While the Soviet communists made some great strides in science and technology, they were never as great as a capitalist system which rewards innovation and individualism.

The idea of communism is sound, but its implementation is always a problem. For it to truly work, EVERY citizen has to buy into it and EVERY citizen has to be treated exactly the same. Here are the reasons:

If you don't have buy-in from everyone, then you will never get anything but mediocrity from your workers. Unless they find working for the state, or for the "common good" as rewarding as they find working for themselves, then they have no incentive to work hard or improve. Why should I work hard, when goofing off will get me the same food, clothing, shelter as the next guy? If, however, you really go for the whole concept of communal property, you will work as hard for the common good as you would work for your own benefit.

If every citizen is not treated exactly the same, then there will be jealousies. If some people have to endure some hardship while other people are riding around in luxury cars with plenty of food and heat in the winter, then you have created competition. And communism is the antithesis of competition.

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I added this part later because I can't stop thinking about this question. A lot of people, here and everywhere, confuse communism as a governmental system with communism as a social system. As a social system it has worked and does work, with those stipulations that I mentioned above. I will give you one example, although there are many.

Look at an order of nuns. Some of these sisterhoods have been around for a couple of hundred years, so they obviously succeed. When a woman joins the order, she gives up any right or claim to privately own anything. All of her belongings and income go to the order. In return, the order provides her with the necessities of survival, including food, clothing, shelter, and medical care throughout the rest of their lives. It is communism, as a social system, in action. And it works.

As a governmental system, it will probably never work for the reasons I've named, and for the reasons that lots of these other anwerers named.
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Answer 2

Communism was Marx' response to the idea that productivity growth will eventually cease. If that were to happen, new skills would no longer command a premium, and the ruling elite would get a chance at permanent entrenchment, possibly to the point of restoring absolute monarchy and involuntary servitude. To prevent this from happening, Marx thought, a popularly elected government must step in and nationalize the productive assets controlled by the elite to ensure that democracy continues to exist and human rights are respected.

Marx thought that the limits of productivity growth will be achieved during the 19th century as all possible technology will have been developed. Alas, that didn’t happen; the human race continues to innovate. Will it ever happen? So far, it doesn't look that way.

The reason communism failed wherever it was tried is that everyone trying it chose to forget that it should only be tried if limits of productivity have been achieved...

Answer 3

The problem with Communism is that it doesn't take into account human laziness.

The problem with Free Enterprise is it doesn't take into account human greed.

In communism, everyone works for the betterment of the community, which in turn betters the individual. But, since the community provides for the betterment of the individual, the individual can rely on the community to provide for him without him providing for it. It makes no sense for the individual to do this as it will cause the system to collapse but laziness is a flaw of human nature and ulitmately causes a pure communistic entity to fail. Therefore all communistic sytems must include some type of reward/failure to balance it, even though it is against the spirit of communism.

In free enterprise, each individual works for his or her own betterment, which in turn betters the community. But, since the community relies on sucess the individual, it is succeptable to the individual who places his own wants and needs over the greater good of the community. It makes no sense for the individual to do this as it will cause the system to collapse but greed is a flaw of human nature and ulitmately causes a pure free enterprise entity to fail. Therefore all Free enterprise sytems must include some type of laws which limit what can be marketed and how, even though it is against the spirit of free enterprise.

Answer 4

Communism looks great on paper. It's a pity that people are not willing to change their nature to make it work though. People change with the time, though, and until there is actually some sort of new Communist movement, people will continue to be "greedy" and "selfish" and "lazy" and all of that other stuff that is supposed to be used to show communism won't work. Still, the logistics of it would never work. The country would not be able to organize itself without a central government...but then it obviously would no longer be a communist nation.

Answer 5

Communism, in its purest form is effective mutualism, with an emphasis on shared ideals and shared workload.
What it isn't is a system designed to oppress and take resources from its people.
Communism will never work as long as humans are avaricious, self centred and easily led, as true communism is anarchic. And by anarchic, I mean not led by one person or an élite group, but by plebiscites and referenda.
Socialism is as close as we will ever come to an effective communist state, but even that has trouble reconciling its ideals with operating within a capitalist world. Hugo Chavéz's cuba is a perfect example of the flawed thinking that mars the socialist and communist ideals. He succeeds in helping the poor, but he is neglecting the commercial side of the economy, which is killing his country slowly.

So in summary, Communism is an inherently good idea, but it suffers from human flaws.

EDIT: OOOOOPS, I said Cuba, didn't I? What I meant to say was Venezuela.
Castro's Cuba seems like a paradise, but it suffers from a severe sense of governmental paranoia and inequality, a hallmark of flawed communism.
See also: China.

Answer 6

If you read the book on Marxism, it's kind of like what you said. It's an unrealistic look at a perfect society in a perfect world where there is no individualism, ambition and competition. I don't even consider it an idea but rather a good piece of fiction.

Answer 7

It's an awful idea, and no it does not work "in theory" any more than it works in real life for a large collection of reasons.

The primary reason for me is that it necessarily dismisses the role of money, free market pricing, and profits. Those things are incredibly important in allocating resources -- conveying and processing information as to how to productively employ resources, and as to what products and service are needed where and in what quantities. These things are part of an information network with built in "routing" and motive forces; they're part of a supercomputer with millions of human brains networked to constantly process information and solve problems.

In the absence of those things, communism has no viable answer as to how to collect sufficient information to even begin, much less process that information to find efficient solutions in organizing and allocating resources. It subscribes to an incredibly foolish and naive notion that some small number of ruling elites can adequately plan and allocate resources and process economic information, and motivate economic actors to perform needed production.

In reality any economy of more than a handful of people will have far, far too complex permutations of possibilities and chaotic activities and interactions and motivations for any small group of planners and controllers ever to efficiently manage it.

This is NOT because people are "greedy" and "selfish" and "avaricious". Even if every person was the communistic ideal of altruism and collective spirit, communism still is an utter failure because good intentions do not process information as needed to efficiently allocate resources. Period.

There are plenty of other reasons communism doesn't work, but just this description of the economic information problem is enough to explain why it was always doomed to fail, even in theory.

Answer 8

Communism has failed, but only because it's been implemented wrong. Lenin, while he did not truly follow Marx, did ok, however Stalin screwed it all up. As far as it being a good or bad idea, how can it be inherently wrong to ensure that all citizens have food, housing, and medical care?

Answer 9

communism ideally should be a good idea.Look at this,a state where EVERYON IS EQUAL!
nO rich or poor ,this is called equity of life.In this society today the rich is getting richer the poor is getting poorer.
the poor is living in misery while the rich is enjoying theemselves to the fullest.Look at the celebrities or sports stars today.they are filthy rich while the poor are suffering like hell.
However communnism still does not work as what can be seen in Soviet union .Too bad ,circumstances at that time are not favourable.thus,unfairness in society exists till today!

Answer 10

I like what Spooky wrote.
Both systems do not account for a certain amount of human nature which must be corrected for, leaving an imperfect system.