Communism: Will it ever work?

[Quackers]

.....And when I say "work" I mean - achieve equal or greater living standards compared to contemporary capitalist nations plus the other benefits promised by Marx.

 

[Truronian]

Maybe, though I doubt it. Are we taking global average living standards here? If so, then capitalism ain't doing too great.

 

[Quackers]

Point accepted. I'll be more specific.

Lets think about the median living standards of advanced post-industralised capitalist nations. The Japans, Germany's and USAs of the world.

 

[GamezRule]

Those countries you speak of would not be the way they are if not for the China's, India's, and Africa's. Communism is intended as a worldwide system to work.

 

[Truronian]

Point accepted. I'll be more specific.

Lets think about the median living standards of advanced post-industralised capitalist nations. The Japans, Germany's and USAs of the world.

In that case probably not. The major capitalist countries in the world today require a certain amount of exploitation of poorer countries to maintain their superior standard of living. It wouldn't be sustainable for everyone in the world to live in a semi-detached and own two cars. Communism lacks a mechanism for exploiting poorer regions, and is unlikely to want to in the first place.

 

[Quackers]

In that case probably not. The major capitalist countries in the world today require a certain amount of exploitation of poorer countries to maintain their superior standard of living. It wouldn't be sustainable for everyone in the world to live in a semi-detached and own two cars. Communism lacks a mechanism for exploiting poorer regions, and is unlikely to want to in the first place.

Would you say the West exploits China?

 

[Tommy Vercetti]

No chance in hell. Capitalist countries will ALWAYS have a higher standard of living.

 

[Behind The Mask]

No chance in hell. Capitalist countries will ALWAYS have a higher standard of living.

Now that we have the sheeps opinion

How about we get back to the actual discussion?

Moderator Action: Flaming
Please read the forum rules: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=422889

 

[Frank Drebin]

it's gonna be the next step in economical development after capitalism.

sometimes things will work and sometimes things will fail.

 

[Cutlass]

Not unless it comes up with ways to overcome its shortcomings that no one has yet thought of.

 

[Traitorfish]

No chance in hell. Capitalist countries will ALWAYS have a higher standard of living.

True. Crime pays.

 

[Quackers]

True. Crime pays.

What "crime" are they guilty of?

 

[Traitorfish]

What "crime" are they guilty of?

Generally speaking, economic exploitation, as well as a list of specifics longer than the Great Wall.

Which, yes, are not all crimes as such, but I was making use of a common inversion of a well-known cliché. I think I can be forgive non-literal usage in this incident.

 

[Quackers]

Generally speaking, economic exploitation, as well as a list of specifics longer than the Great Wall.

Which, yes, are not all crimes as such, but I was making use of a common inversion of a well-known cliché. I think I can be forgive non-literal usage in this incident.

This is an interesting view. The success and progress of capitalist nations is dependent on the exploitation of the third world. I find it hard to stomach. But I feel that this view is redundant due to nations like South Korea which have reached a living standard equal to the Western world and Japan. Which shows us that a 3rd world nation can reach high living standards - and proves to us that the 1st world nations do not wish to exploit (which would suggest permaneant poverty) less devoloped countries.

 

[luiz]

The notion that the prosperity of the developed world relies on the exploitation of the poor world has been debunked both in theory and in reality. Capitalism works even better when the whole world gets richer, which is happening right now.

To answer the OP's question, no it won't, because it can't.

 

[Terxpahseyton]

No chance in hell. Capitalist countries will ALWAYS have a higher standard of living.

It shouldn't be hard to find African, Asian and American capitalist countries which did worse than the German Democratic Republic in terms of standard of living.

I guess your notion is debunked. Please make use of more consideration and moderation before returning with the next one.

In theory I see no reason why a technocracy supported by incredibly sophisticated computers which run incredibly sophisticated simulations incredibly fast shouldn't be able to create a communist society more prosperous than any capitalistic one.
Capitalistic societies are after all full of waste by nature. Not that much of an opponent in terms of efficiency.

 

[kulade]

I'm not quite sure why we need a thread like this every couple of days, but obviously it is bound to descend into oblivion due to the common perceptions of capitalism and communism which are so rank with misunderstanding and attribution error. To your typical anticommunist, communism is a word inseparable from mass-murder totalitarianism and starvation; to him to be a communist is akin to sadism or ignorance of historical fact. To an amateur communist, rapacious capitalists can be attributed as the geneses of every single aversive phenomenon from poverty in Africa to the failure of the war in Iraq, and anything gone wrong in society obviously stems directly from capitalist exploitation.

 

[Joecoolyo]

Depends on the scale.

On a community scale: Yes.

On a country scale: No

On a global scale: Maybe

 

[Terxpahseyton]

Because of those perceptions we need those threads in the first place kulade. Here you can maybe change one or two misconceptions.

 

[Shadylookin]

I don't really get why everyone thinks capitalism is exploiting third-world countries. They don't work for a dollar a day because their masochists they do it because it's the best opportunity they have. If you shut down that opportunity then they will be worse off.