aimeeandbeatles
watermelon
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- Apr 5, 2007
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Except for the fact that it hasn't been implemented properly yet, why are people so opposed to it?
What exactly is so wrong with communism?
- Thread starter aimeeandbeatles
- Start date
Because every time it has been implemented has been alongside dictatorship. Dictatorship is an extremely oppressive form of government that has led to many atrocities, so people naturally associate communism, the economic system, to the same things dictatorship is responsible for. As such, people hate and decry communism as evil.
amadeus
Bishop of Bio-Dome
Well, first of all it tramples on an essential human liberty, the right to retain the fruits of one's labor. While the communists will try to spin this as being a part of their system, it isn't.
Second, the system doesn't actually work unless all members are willing to put effort into it and sacrifice one's ambition. Aside from perhaps the Amish and a few hippies in the Pacific Northwest, people typically have more drive to accomplish things than that.
Second, the system doesn't actually work unless all members are willing to put effort into it and sacrifice one's ambition. Aside from perhaps the Amish and a few hippies in the Pacific Northwest, people typically have more drive to accomplish things than that.
That's something often touted by capitalists, usually making sure to add "freedom" in there. In an oversimplification, all communism is is a higher tax rate. Your human liberty is being trampled on right now, because like it or not, you have to pay however much taxes the US requires.
Another frequently touted failure. "Works well in theory, but not in practice because humans are selfish." That completely misses the point of this economic system, and oversimplifies it to the point of absurdity.
amadeus
Bishop of Bio-Dome
Yes, a 100% effective tax rate.
When did I ever say it worked well in theory? I think it's an all-around awful system, period.
QuoVadisNation
keeping your angel alive
Every young person seemingly flirts with communism at one point. But asides from its tendency to never ever ever, eva eva, get out of the second stage monopolistic dicatitorship into what Marx called future communal paradise or the third stage (or something like that), its also the fact that unless the country manages to complete the process of communism totally where it didn't need to be dictated by money, it turns into a stagnant repressive nation state that's inferior for people in many ways to either capitalism or socialism.
Communism sounds like it's a great idea until it's implemented.
You just can't implement it on a population that's not already highly skilled and well off with little wealth disparity. And even if you did implement it after a long successful path of foundation building, a hybrid capitalistic system with a strong social net will out preform.
You just can't implement it on a population that's not already highly skilled and well off with little wealth disparity. And even if you did implement it after a long successful path of foundation building, a hybrid capitalistic system with a strong social net will out preform.
Winner
Diverse in Unity
I doesn't work because it contradicts human nature - that's the main flaw which caused every major attempt at its implementation in practice to fail.
I think if you took a strong, rich, social democracy and slowly moved towards communism, it wouldn't fail though I do think it'd languish.
Really? All the millions of pages written by communist theoriticians, all the internal struggles between communist parties worldwide, all the blood shed between communists themselves is really just a debate over how high the tax rate should be? Really?
One has to wonder why they bothered with their wars and revolutions if higher tax rates can easily be achieved under the framework of a liberal democracy, no?
OK, so you don't know what communism is.
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As for the OP, try reading some of the critiques of communism written over the decades. They're almost as numerous as communist literature, so there's plenty of information out there and you can decide for yourself what is wrong with communism, if anything.
Winner
Diverse in Unity
It would fail just like the other commie regimes. This system can work in small communities if all people join voluntarily and strongly believe in the system - so strongly that they're willing to make personal sacrifices and work for the greater good. It requires a faith not dissimilar to religious zeal.
Problems arise when you try to apply it on a bigger community or a whole country. In such a situation, convinced communist "believers" will inevitably become a minority - and guess what methods will they use to "persuade" others to follow their ideals...
Yes, the same crap we've seen in the USSR, DPRK, Maoist China and a half of Europe. How many more people do have to die before people realize that some ideas are simply bad?
I was making a point.
That's not an oversimplification, that's a 100% wrong statement. In a communist society there wouldn't even be taxes.
Formaldehyde
Both Fair And Balanced
Because they irrationally fear that it threatens their very existence.
You're missing the point. The reason there aren't any taxes is because people don't get "income" the way we think about it. But I'm not going to stand here and argue/defend my statement, since it was deliberately manufactured to help a person realize that "the liberty to have the fruits of your labour" doesn't exist entirely in capitalist systems either.
