What do YOU think Communism is?

[Deleted]

Communism is supposed to be made for the working class. With no boss taking extra money from the product the works have made and having a democratic way of getting your money, where the person who does the most of the work gets the most money.
The perfect communism is when the country no longer need a authority, where everyone can take care of them self in a class less society. But to achive this they have to have a leader at first. And so far no communistic society have ever gone so far to the perfect society because it will take very long time and most leaders use communism to hide their accual goal.

[Malagan]

it's a socioeconomic theory based on fairness and presuming all contributers to be equal partisans. However western cultures have a notoriety for being highly neurotic/ individualistic and prefer social comparisons to work in their favor. I believe it is possible to run a psudeo-communistic state such as China's attempts however there is simply too much stagnation in that type of social order. People are unique and their contributions will always be varied. Taken to the extreme this theory can bleed into other areas of humanitarian issues. For example who would get medical care first in an ER when both parties are presumed equal... by choosing one or the other first you would be making a judgement on the difference of the individuals value no matter how you try to spin it.

I prefer democracy myself but we are living with a "elite" democracy here in the united states. In some ways I envy socialist states. It is such a shame that the Presidency lost so much power due to Bush/Cheny's overstepping congress. Now we have a decent president who cannot make social change that would repair so much of our immediate troubles.

Can have both socialism and democracy, you know.
Scandinavian countries tend to be "Social Democracies", run by socialist parties.

[Deleted]

it's an evil thing and everyone that supports it should be killed on sight.. and yes i do belive that.. only good commie is a dead commie

That makes you no better than the communists, freedom of speech? However when they start forcing you to a communist system, you can start using that 2nd amendment >: )

[Masqerader]

communism and capitlism are ideally the same


instead of a gov't controlling the wealth, we have corporations who own the wealth of a "free world"

[deevicoos]

Communism doesn't exist, and cannot exist. It has never existed, there are NO "real" communist states. It's like caesium, it's real but it just explodes on contact with air. Ouch.

Socialism is merely the belief that an economy is measured in satisfaction of wants and not money. You can actually be a capitalist socialist but it's quite a long stretch, however socialism can and often extends to people who believe the free market is an integral part of the best solution to the basic economic problem. The original socialists sit right of center in modern terms.

[Mister K]

it's an evil thing and everyone that supports it should be killed on sight.. and yes i do belive that.. only good commie is a dead commie

Saying that kind of statement doesn't make you any better!

[Deleted]

In communism everyone does what he can and gets what he needs, at least in theory.

[Goreskull]

Communism is a higher truth of all being equal misunderstood and turned into a plan for a society.

[Shock]

Can we get a Mod to lock this topic!

[Meleti]

In this sense, the theory of the Communists may be summed up in the single sentence: Abolition of private property.

-Karl Marx

[Bikni]

Theres a book called "Tuiavii's Way (Der Papalagi)" by a Erich Scheurmann a German author, its about what Western Europe in the late 19th century looks to a Samoan chief from a tribe that has a perfect Communism model, is a fabulous read, and gives a very good idea of what a perfect communist society would be like.

[Lillia]

Bridges, roads, electricity grids, railroads, intercontinental communication cables etc can be built perfectly fine by private corporations - and they have been built. When the government does it - it does a terrible job that in the end makes it incredibly expensive for the taxpayer. It's sad how dependant on the government people have become, they believe that if the government doesn't do it, then nobody will, while historical statistics show that the best quality of products at the lowest price were delivered by private corporations.

What all of you who advocate a high level of socialism/communism really are doing is shooting yourself in the leg, permanently crippling the poor from rising from poverty.

Examples, please? I can't think of any that have been built without significant government assistance/subsidies, like paying for half the cost AND allowing the corporation massive profits afterwards (see rail barons, toll roads, etc). That's my tax dollars subsidizing roads and such that I then pay additional costs to use. I'm OK with that, actually, because there are advantages to having private industry be in charge of maintenance and such on infrastructure, but the infrastructure would never have been built in the first without government.

Also, capitalism is all about maximizing profit. Have you heard of externalities? Those are those pesky things like environmental degradation, pollution, waste, shoddy construction, poisonous ingredients, etc that are never represented in the cost of an item. The company never has to pay those costs, but someone else does. Someone else is always you or me or Sue over there, but we can't afford to watch the corporation, or test the area around it, or make sure their products are safe. We need someone else with the clout and money to do that. That is the government. Governments only get money one way, which is taxes.

I personally am fond of companies having to follow basic labor safety, minimum wages, clean food regulations, anti-pollution of air and water regulations, etc. I'm very happy to pay for them with my taxes, and if that makes me a socialist, then that's a name I'll gladly claim.

[dim]

communisam is by far too advanced system for mentality of human kind. all dictators took it cuz they find it easy to manipulate ppl with communistic ideas but ofc had their agendas. I kinda look at Star Trek as a some way of communisam in better form then we seen it

[Deleted]

What communism is? Well, communism derived directly from marxism, and basically took the "people should get rid of the monarchy/noble reign" part of marxism but omitted the "...and have democratic elections to decide who gets to rule" part - my point being that the original communist regime started out by crusading Marxism and then did a hostile takeover when the election did not go their way.

So, communism at its purest is a deliberate misuse of socialist ideas as an excue to rule a totalitarian dictatorship. No, the ideology often associated with the word is not like that and is actually just a very extreme brand of socialism - but to me, that's what the word actually means.

---------- Post added 2011-03-30 at 10:53 PM ----------

I think the problem is that everyone in here believes that a communist society has no rules.

A communist society IS a controlled group of people. But the thing is... Everyone helps control it. If you don't work for what you earn, you get warned and/or kicked out. By everyone.

No, that's democratic capitalism. Communism as an ideology is about entitlement, not about showing performance and being rewarded proportionally. What you are describing is a democratic brand of capitalism, because it implies that you need to perform in order to recieve a reward.

[Deleted]

as I understand it, communisim is where everybody is equal, there is no upper / middle / lower class. People work for the good of the people with all proffit or Proceedes going to better themselfs. sound Familiar ? then you have proberbly been watching an episode of a certain sci-fi TV show ;-)

With the right leadership, and as long as there was no greed involved then yes, this type of system may work. however people want status symbols, be it a bone in the lip of some rainforrest tribesman, or the penthouse suite on the 100th floor of a building, and whilst people want these things and are willing to obtain them at the cost of others then we will never see a a true utopean comunist style society

[Vutar]

So, in the "Mass Manipulation in Romania" thread, there seemed to be some misconceptions about what exactly communism is.

I'd like to hear what you think it is.

Please tell me.

What is communism? A system that has never worked in the history of the world. Yet invariable some crackpot will come along trying to convince people that his/her way of operating it holds the secret.

[Stelio Kontos]

communisam is by far too advanced system for mentality of human kind. all dictators took it cuz they find it easy to manipulate ppl with communistic ideas but ofc had their agendas. I kinda look at Star Trek as a some way of communisam in better form then we seen it

I don't see anything advanced or higher about a system where I am not allowed to own property and where no matter how hard I work I'll get the exact same as anyone else who may not have worked as hard.

In fact, it seems inferior to me.

[xile]

I don't see anything advanced or higher about a system where I am not allowed to own property and where no matter how hard I work I'll get the exact same as anyone else who may not have worked as hard.

In fact, it seems inferior to me.

Because the system requires by definition people to be motivated by a higher cause to help the majority at times that it may not be beneficial to the self. Then again i'm fairly certain that humans have never in their entire existence done something that did not benefit them in one way or another. The system assumes that everyone will work the hardest, it has exceptionally high standards that humans will never work for ever, we're only interested in what serves our own individual needs. If anything neither are inferior, communism is in its ideals a system created for people that actually value the whole much more than the individual needs and in some opinions abide to higher moral standards.

[Stelio Kontos]

Because the system requires by definition people to be motivated by a higher cause to help the majority at times that it may not be beneficial to the self. Then again i'm fairly certain that humans have never in their entire existence done something that did not benefit them in one way or another. The system assumes that everyone will work the hardest, it has exceptionally high standards that humans will never work for ever, we're only interested in what serves our own individual needs.

This constant mentioning of non-existent "higher cause" of communism and thinking it's better if people put some false sense of collectivism ahead of their own interests smacks of quasi-religion to me.

[xile]

This constant mentioning of non-existent "higher cause" of communism and thinking it's better if people put some false sense of collectivism ahead of their own interests smacks of quasi-religion to me.

It has zero to do with religion and everything to do with the betterment of mankind as a whole and seeing the race as an entity become better. Most people don't care about this in the least, sure people i suppose could take it to a fanatical religious sense, but a lot of the moral laws we abide by today are based on some perversion of this idea that we are supposed to do whats good for people as a whole, even thought that's not the case in many cases, we apply significant value to something as meaningless (in reality) as money because it greatly affects our individual lives and significantly less to humans lives that don't affect us.

Like i've said the problem with communism is a human problem, not a system problem. I'd be utterly amazed at a species that could work together all at once for one common goal putting the whole before the individual.