Communism

[Red Cat]

I don't get why communism gets such a bad rep. Actually, strike that.

But in all seriousness, communism is a real beautiful thing in theory.

See, Bernie Sanders and his supporters are all communists.

But in seriousness, the idea of everyone having a stake of ownership in everything and everyone's role being valued sounds good in theory, but has never been applied correctly in practice and I don't know if it's even feasible to do so. Usually it turns into government ownership of everything instead of public ownership, and things go to hell from there.

The same could be said about capitalism though. The only reason why any "capitalist" society is able to succeed is because there are socialist elements mixed in. That's why it's silly to debate capitalism versus communism. Both systems have major flaws which make them unworkable, so it's mostly just a debate on which point people want to be between those two.

 

[Mura]

I was expecting that Jared:3 would be the creator of this thread.

 

[chaicow]

To be honest, I rather have an unequal sharing of blessings than an equal sharing of misery. With communism, there is high equality, but low freedom. With capitalism, there is high freedom but low equality. I prefer capitalism over communism because when everything is equal, in theory, the drive to succeed and do well diminishes. If every one is equal why should one go out of their way to try hard if the result will always be the same. With capitalism, there are advances. When the government doesn't control everything, people strive to succeed and that is what I like about capitalism. In my opinion, communism sounds nice in theory because everyone is equal and your life path is decided for you but I like capitalism because I like being free. Plus, in a communist system, the government or ruling body has all the power and some day they may become corrupt because absolute power leads to corruption in some cases. However, don't get me wrong, there are good and bad parts to both capitalism and communism.

 

[moonford]

I agree with what it stands for.

 

[radical6]

WHO KEEPS BUMPING MY THREADS

 

[moonford]

WHO KEEPS BUMPING MY THREADS

What do you mean by "who keeps" this is the only thread of yours I've seen on the first and second page.

 

[-Apples-]

It has its good intentions, but one principle of communism I oppose is the command economics, where everything is on a central planning system. In a command system, the government gets to choose what job you get, where you live, what schools you go to, and even how you do your job. I do not believe that a higher power should make your life decisions. We should be free to do whatever we want as long as it's not harmful (which means we shouldn't kill, steal, discriminate based on skin, or any other objectively bad stuff like that). Another problem with the government making your life decisions is the coordination problem. People may be educated to have experience in one field, but when the government decides that your job is in another field, it would be a problem to consumers becausd they're hiring an inexperienced worker. I may need to go over more explanation on this later, but lack of choice and bad coordination are why I'm against communism.

 

[bikes345]

I sort of think that history has shown that communism doesn't work. I'm not a huge fan of capitalism either but America isn't completely a capitalist nation because we have things like social security which is more like socialism.

 

[Mega_Cabbage]

I don't really see why America needed to butt in and stop the idea of communism in nations that were trying to fix their economy, but I do believe in an economic system where salary is based on skill and education. I don't like the idea of a person who didn't graduate high school earning the same amount as a person who has a master's degree.

 

[moonford]

I don't really see why America needed to butt in and stop the idea of communism in nations that were trying to fix their economy, but I do believe in an economic system where salary is based on skill and education. I don't like the idea of a person who didn't graduate high school earning the same amount as a person who has a master's degree.

Greediness, maybe?

 

[Red Cat]

I don't really see why America needed to butt in and stop the idea of communism in nations that were trying to fix their economy, but I do believe in an economic system where salary is based on skill and education. I don't like the idea of a person who didn't graduate high school earning the same amount as a person who has a master's degree.

I agree that people who are more skilled and put in more effort deserve to be compensated more, but it should be reasonable. If an employee makes $20,000 per year and the CEO makes $20 million, that's not reasonable. There is no way the CEO is 1,000 times smarter or works 1,000 times harder than his/her employees on the ground. Capitalism is okay if it's augmented by a high minimum wage and progressive taxes, but when it's not, the gross income inequality cannot sustain itself.

 

[CometCatcher]

I'm not a huge fan of full-blown communism or full-blown anything, really; however, I do believe that America's policy of containment and meddling in other countries' businesses was unneeded. If America had minded its own business, perhaps things would be better today (at the same time, I also should be glad that America intervened in the Korean War; if they hadn't, I wouldn't be here!) So it's hard.

I am not a big advocate for capitalism, either. The people who are at the very top and are extraordinarily wealthy have an unfair advantage over the majority of those who are at the bottom. Economic issues bring about issues of class. And every human being, regardless of the money he/she earns, should have access to health care and basic human necessities; we need to have a stronger middle class, rather than a huge discrepancy between between the very rich and the very poor.

Anyways, everything in moderation. Capitalism and communism have their respective strengths and weaknesses.