General

Communism > Capitalism in today's world
China basically owns the United States
Western belief however leads us to think that communism is a backwards form of government
This too is laughable because the Soviets were the first to put a man in space as well as a man made satellite
so.....

For an ideal world communism is good. A caplistic is more of a dog eat dog world. Either way, no where in our world is perfect.

In a perfect world a communist society would work, however humans don't work that way. Many people would seek to be more ambitious, greedy, lazy, or take over society. And in every single communist country, the leaders are usually corrupt and have a ton of money to spend for themselves.

It doesn't as an economic system. What country still has a communist economy?

You're probably confusing the Communist political party in China with a communist economy. 2 different things. As a political party they simply seek to have a very heavy-hand in all aspects of life- but not necessarily divide up the economy equally.

Because it's good in theory, but not in practice

Communism is just idealistic. They use that excuse to rule over people and have power.

[quote=BurninDavyn]
Yes, I was referring to big corporations and their hold on the country.
1. There are a few positives to having large companies, especially in a capitalist country, I will agree, but an overwhelming amount of negatives are also clearly revealed. You listen to/read the news daily and all you hear are complaints about CEO's and Wall Street head honchos lining their pockets while the general public gets the scraps.
Going down the line, it also denies smaller companies the opportunity to make it big. Examples: with large retailers such as Wal-mart and Target across the country, what hope is there for smaller businesses in relative fields to survive? What about Dunkin' Donuts? Starbucks were shut down nation wide recently and I haven't heard of any new rising coffee franchise. As much as we deny it and the laws are placed to prevent it, monopoly is knocking on our back door.

2. Be honest here. What's the outlook on hope for a change in power here? Our country has roughly a 45% voting percentage for the President. Can you really expect a change by power-in-numbers against big-name companies when we can't even functionally pick a leader for our country?
[/quote]

1.If a big chain gets too big, it will be split up into several competing smaller firms. In fact, I expect this to happen to Dunkin' Donuts within a few years. Also, if big companies really controlled everything, we wouldn't hear complaints about them, would we? If you don't like the big companies, don't buy from them. Heck, a monopoly can even be a good thing by keeping prices low. Also, we already have monopolies in things like electricity, simply because it's more efficient that way.

2.If people are willing to sit there while big corporations decide everything, I don't see a problem.

Capitalism leads to a majority poor/middle class vs. a rich minority and functions on the belief that the poor must stay poor in order for the economy to thrive. Our system relies on the rich in order to keep the system functioning and thus allocates the most power to these rich. I don't think that any society where money takes priority over humans is beneficial morally.

I believe that a better society can be formed from communism could work in a society where the like a quarter or more of people's income came from how much surplus the government earned cuemulatively.

[quote=BurninDavyn]It was a rhetorical question used to show a point. Communism is perfect in theory, but we can't have nice things. It's extremely efficient if human's weren't so damn objective and idealistic. The fact that everything is corrupt is a neon-arrow point to the fact that "No, this crap ain't working. Something needs to change." Why do you think America is being run straight into the ground. My bet is that we will lose our place as the number one super power in the world within a decade, and a loss of position overall before the century is half over. History repeats itself. America is no exception.[/quote]

Actually, communism would never actually be more efficient than capitalism. Unless everyone decides they're willing to die to give everyone else free stuff.

Also, what exactly do you mean by 'corrupt'? Corporations control politics? If that's what you mean, I have to ask this: 1.What bad will come from this and 2.People can change things if they act. Consumer sovereignty. They only rule because we let them.
[quote=BurninDavyn]Also, see below, as there are five countries running that are working under some form of communism. Clearly it hasn't failed completely (yet).
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China, Vietnam, and Cuba are all moving towards a market economy at varying speeds. North Korea and Laos...let's just say they don't have the best standards of living.

A dictator is the way to go

Because, in theory, it is the best solution for 3rd world countries who are either very poor, or have a huge gap between the rich and the poor. They can't go straight into capitalism because all the money would only circulate through the wealthy portion of society, and never get to the lower class to help them up. In Communism, all members of society have roles to carry out to benefit the entire community. This will help close the gap between the rich and the poor, and in theory, eventually create a utopia.

I think it's a great idea, it's just that human nature prevent it from happening. =/

When I grow up, I'm going to buy an island and make it as free from any existing government as possible.
Then I will set up a communist state with slight dictatorship, and only invite people who understand communism to my awesome island.
Yes, there will be monkey butlers.

[quote=BliksemSagitta]Communism in China is still kicking, it didn't fail, it works very well there, the government is like having absolute power over the citizens.[/quote]

China is no longer communist. It is an authoritarian government with a capitalist economy. Basically "communist", but with a capitalist economy.

I don't think communism exists now. It existed BEFORE. But most countries not promote capitalism. Except North Korea, though. But the leader is basically making their citizens go famine. That is NOT what communism is.

[quote=BurninDavyn]Because it's quite clear that our Capitalist Democratic Republic isn't exactly the most stable form of government.
The better question is "Why aren't more countries converting to communism?" Hell, I'd prefer to live in a Socialist country, preferably with a Parliamentary system. I despise Capitalism. It's corrupt and dirty, especially here in America. It's unfortunate that the world is run by money and that Socialist societies cannot thrive well anymore.[/quote]

More countries aren't converting to communism because it's less efficient, there's no incentive to work, and nothing gets done.

Capitalism may be run by money, but...that's the point. Everyone acts in self interest, the invisible hand governs the economy...the fact that it is 'corrupt and dirty' are actually signs that capitalism is thriving, and money is the law of the land.

@2above all but proven isn't the same situation. Besides, there are ways of working religion into science. Communism...has failed, and always will fail. Unless heaven exists, in which case, we're all communists in heaven.

[quote=BliksemSagitta]Communism in China is still kicking, it didn't fail, it works very well there, the government is like having absolute power over the citizens.[/quote]

China is socially communist, but has a fairly capitalist economy. If it didn't, it would have fallen upon itself years ago.

@above Capitalism has it's flaws, but it's the best economic system.

@below True, but in reality, it fails. Horribly.

Ideally, Communism is great. But it's part of human nature to be greedy so it usually doesn't work out.
Also, what economic option do you have in mind that you think is successful?

Because all current communist countries have a capitalist economy.
Good money =happy people. As long as they get some of it