Communism: Good or Bad?

Ever since Karl Marx spead the influential idea of communism, or Marxism, was communism worth it? Why did people die for and against it? Did Stalin or Mao present the ideo logically? Remember, a communist country is a socialist country, but a socialist country is not necessaril a communist country. Is communism good or bad? Commies or anti-commies?

Zismann Agence Presse

i think communism is stupid. Why would people be communism? The hell with damn commies. They are # monkies!

idiots those commies. Stalin and Lennin can go to Hell!

powerlite, pls try to elaborate and don't name-call. You obvoiusly no nothing about Communism otherwise you wound't have started slinging mud.

Communism is good for smaller states, but when it gets adopted on a large scale like the CCCP then it can easily get corrupted.

from wikipedia.org



It seems like this type of system would work really well in a small city-state. Stalinism and Comunism are totally different.

In practice it has proven to be flawed. Good bad I dont know if such simple terms can describe a system like that.

Was the power Communism gave Stalin a bad thing 20 million dead Russians would think so.

Communism is the devil. Capitalism is the devil. Thank god we dont have capitalism
Communism is much more better.

uhh you don't make any sense dude. Infact you're looking like you gonna be ignore worthy if ya keep it up. I come to these board to try to engage people in intelligent discussion, but unfortunetly its been getting harder and harder because of people like you. BTW My opinion on the matter is that Capitalism is much more unfair than Communism. By definition only though. On any large scale Capitalism is superior. And thank you for referring to Democracies real name

Communsism in thoery is great, but as mentioned befor it can be easily corrupted. So if we could get some government officials and politicians that are empty of greed, then communsism would be ideal for the world. Yet people who clame capitalism is any better, we are just as corrupt. What is needed for communism also to work is to set up a global communist government, if the biggest economical powers in the world could join up as to say Great Britan, Germany, America, and France then communism would end up working better as all of the countries equaly share out the wealth between for the amount of population to every country. When we learn that greed is the root of all evil and capitalism is based around human greed, then maybe we could make it a better place.

i dont understand what u mean? capitalism is more stupider than communicam, because u can be egaliterrian when you are a commie. Besides, what can we do about it??

In my opinion,communism is bad.
The largest flaw with communism is that it supresses the individual,and makes mediocraty the highest calling. which sucks
The nazi's were socialist,but economically they were more capitalist-republic,than they were communist.
so for the record, Im anti-commie.
I like a small federal government thats only job is to protect our home land,and make sure every state is upholding the constitution.
So that no one may be able to violate our rights,and we may be able to pursue any that try.

for the record I never said Capitolism is better I just said it outperformed communism. Look at history. I do agree with you that if the world went communism then it might work, but we would need much better technology to make it work. ie Look into Desktop Manufacturing cool stuff. Man can you imagine a world wide Democracy? It would be fricken political chaos everyday of the year

On a side not, I believe that all the current Gov'ts of the world are flawed to some extent, and these are just the best we have developed to date so maybe in 20 years we'll all be talking about umm idunno maybe Anarcho-Transhumanism

Well, let's take a look at history shall we?

The USSR failed, but it did so because it was in an arms race with the US. However, the US was spending MORE money on defence then the USSR was. In addition, the USSR also had a higher population then the US did. So the US was spending substantially MORE on defence, per person.

To put that in context, you must compare the average persons state of living. In the USSR, the vast majority of people were very poor, with no chance of climing the social latter. In the US, the average person enjoyed a relatively VERY good life. There was no restriction on your income - it was dependent on your own choices and abillities.

In communism - at least in practice - there is also great restriction in freedoms. People could not travel freely, and censorship was the norm, not the exception as it is in free nations.

To put it bluntly, Communism is the worst form of government in the modern world. It stifles ambition, creativity, and sets a lower standard for citizens while taking away rights.

Honestly, if you or any one else doesn't understand this after the last 55 years, you need to take 1st grade history.

On paper Communism is a wonderful idea, but it will only work if the leaders remain corruptless and honourable. Something we all know leaders tend not to be.

Thus the whole thing rotted from the top down until it could no longer hold.

George orwell summed it up the best: All people are created equal, some however are more equal than others...

I don't think that Communism is applicable in large scale, as needed for the running of a country, but is a good system in small scale.

There are small villages in Portugal that use what may be called a communist system, and they use it for centuries without any problem.

This is off-topic, but why can't I see the posts from Powerlite?

I could only see the posts in the page to post the reply.

The idea of communism is good for the betterment of all of society, but the problem I still have is the fact that 1. You should work for what you get, earning what you deserve and 2. Too few people controlling too many, which is why a big nation could never work.

Better than capitalism, since now our capitalism has turned into fascism.

Okay, here it is.

On a Global scale, Communism has the ability to work. I say this, and at the same time I know that it will never come to this, for the simple reason that people will look at how it has progressed during the low point in its history.

Observe during the cold war, how it was the West, vs. the Rest.

Basically, what will happen is that in a non-global economic schema, IE, one where the Communist Agenda is not supported the world over OFFICIALLY, then there will always be an outside market, which in its existence itself undermines the ability for the Communistic system to succeed.

So, basically, we're looking at Capitalism being stronger in a system where there are other forms of economy, and Communism being stronger, where the global economy is one cohesive unit.

I for one believe that if commerce were the same the world over, and everything was equal in all countries, including laws, tariffs, and tax rates, Capitalism would take a rather large dip in effectiveness.

Communism, I believe, will never make it to that sort of scale, barring a huge overhaul or disaster, in our Global Community.

How about an American Revoultion, I'm ready for it.

[edit on 21-11-2004 by TheInfidel]

The biggest flaw in communism is the incorrect assumption that humans actually are created equal and that the work they do or what they contribute to society is equal as well. They (we) are not, although it satisfies our sense of ethics and fairness to act like we think all are equal.

If I am capable of working harder, better, or longer than the next person down, but am not rewarded in any way for that, then it is not to my benefit to continue out-producing that person if they get an equal share, even if they didn't do equal work. This is why production in a communist society is only as good as the least capable worker involved. The producers always end up carrying the non-producers and will eventually resent it, while never getting rewarded for it.

Human nature, and amimal nature as well, are all formed off of cause and effect, action and reward, from the day almost any living creature leaves the womb, egg, or whatever. To try to govern (ie: organize) humans with a system that does not take the natural competitive and power-seeking nature of humans into account is not only foolish and futile, but it's also dangerous, as we've seen with the failed or failing communist states in existance now.

Communism is contrary to human nature.