Communism in paper it is great. It sounds almost as a holy book, preaches the same as Koran, Torah and the Bible; share the wealth, be humble and attend with your personal fortune to the poor, etc. What is wrong with that is not the concept; that everyone should have and enjoy equality, but failing to recognize that no system in the world is better that the level of emancipation humans as an entity have achieved.
Communism wasn't the first system trying out this concept as someone above mentioned. Communism was the first to apply that idea in a global scale. The previous tentative were spread during many centuries with all of them having the same fate; romantically fulfilling and practically killing. They are called utopian experiments.
Communism (as a system and as a theory) it is in denial of the fact, that no system can impose on the large population moral and economical standards by order and by revolution. This humble standards and norms are maybe illuminated and humanitarian at the core, but alien to the stage where human nature is at the moment.
Let me give you an example: I lived in and under communism long enough to understand firsthand the grave failings and the destination of that system to crumble in today’s human stage of development. First of all was no private property. Everything was State Property. The only property recognized beside the State Property was the so called personal property (the ones clothes, furniture’s, bicycle, in other words personal belongings and if u had a house that was in your family you could not use it legally to generate money and you didn’t own the land beneath it). Every private economical activity was punished severely. All industries and economical activities were nationalized by governmental decree. In the communism that I have experienced, the government taxes everyone on the income. Income tax was a significant chunk of the national budget the other revenues on the budget being, money coming from customs, international trade and the entire profit (if it was profitable lol) of any industry, including food industry, agrarian, heavy industry etc. In other words, every structure that created revenue had to deposit it into the state budget. So we had a budget that virtually had all the money created in the nation. This national budget was managed with the famous communist principles; redistributing it as the state was seeing fit. Investing it and spending it in what, the state from above decided was important and priority. No matter how profitable an industry was, it had no chance on enjoying the profit. In investing it to get better and better, or using it to the benefit of employees since the government would take the money and invest it to other fields. In doing that, communism failed to realize that; by taking the profit and the money from a plant (let say shoes manufacturing) that was turning a high profit because of the good product, that plant and collective had no more incentive on doing so continuously. That is the moment when human nature comes into the play. A director, a manager, a worker of that plant had no reasons at all to perform reform, invent, and improve or in bettering anything at all. It creates a parasitic mentality since the salary is guaranteed from the state no matter how good or bad the plant is doing. The notion of a business going bankrupt was unknown and unheard off since the state would keep open everything that it needed to fulfill peoples need, but with a small catch: the minimum needs. Since the minimum for different individuals it is a very relative ingredient, communism it’s in a big trouble. At list the communism as we know it and experimented all around the world up to this moment in history.
Communism being that is a system when economy is planed from the state (based in moral and political goals) distorts the reality because it decides by default what individuals need, want, dream, and aspire from life on fulfilling themselves. In this take and approach communism is much more arrogant and utopian then capitalism and it doesn’t stop just in arrogance, but turns violent in brutally exterminating any different way of thinking. It becomes criminal.
Another example; government does math and realizes that 2 million people have 4 million legs! So it easy and fast arrives to the conclusion: we need 2 million pair of shoes to make sure everyone have a pair. That logic leads to the need of building 2 shoe factories, ideally one in north one in south to produce each 1 million a year so all people get shoes. It sounds cool! Everyone gets shoes. Eureka!
In this action they fulfill the requirement of being morally and politically correct. This; so nice morally driven decision killed innovation, research and development since is no competition. This 2 plants have a guaranteed market and as a result we ended up in Albania of 70's and 80's with only 2 models of shoes for man and maybe 6-7 for woman. No other options at all, we morphed to a nation of 2-3 colors and max 8 models. Check it yourself on you tube, search chronicles from 70's and 80' and judge how people look, for man’s dominating color is black and grey and woman all have a similar pattern in colors and design not because of a particular fashion mode, but because that was the only option in the stores.
I took the shoes sample, but the same happened to every industry and as the result every household ended up looking the same. We all had the same furniture’s, same silverware, same TV’s, Radios, we all bought those goods at the same price and could navigate each other apartments with eyes closed even if we never been there before. The innovation, research and development was killed to the point as to no notion of any brand existed for the internal products. We would talk like this: I bought the 2000 Lek (Albanian currency) table and everyone in the entire nation would know what I was talking about. Or woman would talk like this: I bought the 600 Lek sandals and this nice 800 Lek for Metter fabric and all other woman in the nation would know exactly the model, the color, the shape and the quality of it.
That phenomenon went even further where communism in Albania took the other step of deciding to nationalize the poor animals owned from even poorer villagers. Remember is no private property allowed in communism. That was the last castle to attack and take for the communism in the name of redistribution and sharing the wealth. Farm animals! By deepening the redistribution this time in the pastoral and agrarian field (always inspired from the communist ideal) we went so far as in 80's we all had the same menu. It sounds funny and sad today, but that is what happened. It was no choice in the stores to pick from; oil, meet, eggs, flower, cheese, butter, milk, soap, etc. rationed, because what was provided was the product of redistributing the wealth of the nation based on the moral and political call ignoring the stage of human emancipation and economy as a science.
Intervention of the state in policing wealth it is proved that kills the economy and ends up worst than the system that communism tries in the first place to replace it. What is great of US economy and to other western countries in general is that the system in place it is not arrogant to fight the human nature, but tries to do the best with the level where human nature is at the moment. It is imperfect and if unchecked cruel, but it has enough forces within to become open for change in symmetry with the human demand as human nature evolves.
Let see some rights developed under the capitalism (as cruel as it is) compared to the communism. 5 work day per week was developed in capitalism, 8 hours of work per day, overtime pay, vacations, benefits, pension, life insurance, tuition coverage, birth leave, sick days, personal days, holidays, collective contract, unionizing right, the right to sue the employer for violation of rights etc.
It was not such a thing in Communism. In Albania we had to work 6 days and get paid not on the individual performance or the business performance, but on the shoulders of some other business that maybe was doing better. What happens in this case is that you can spend hours at the next door coffee killing time during work hours since guess what: human nature prevails.
As far as income tax and corporate tax goes in US. Wealthy people and corporate America create the bulk of the revenue that goes to create the US budget compared with the money middle class and under poverty line group contributes from taxes into the budget. Income tax collected from taxing the middle class contrary from what urban legend proclaims it is less then what rich subjects (individual and business) contribute to this economy in total dollar amount. Another example from the capitalist world and government intervention in the economy based on moral logic: If no profit (the engine of the economy) is respected, then what happens is that no invention, no improvement takes place at all. Long Island in NY (Nassau County and Suffolk County) have more CAT SCAN machines that the entire Ontario region in Canada. The reason it is very simple. The state founded Canadian Hospitals have as much money as government decides they should have. Hence hospital seams it’s for free, but the machine you need is not there. And the irony is that's not really free, you already are taxed for it on your income once. That’s why most of inventions, in every field had come in last century from the type of economy that respects the basics.
As far as Nordic countries go and their high standard of living; they can afford to distort and intervene in the economy because they are disproportionally rich and wealthy by means of plundering the resources of other nations and monopolizing certain industries, collecting Royalties until today Dutch, by natural luck to have few million people sitting on top of large global reserves of oil and gas Norwegians, immense territories and natural riches compared to the population Sweden, or by unique situation (convenient international and geopolitical situation) Swiss.
Communism or whatever it might be called the ideal that it is at the soul of governing the peoples life and economy based on share humanitarian logic and values, it will eventually happen (that is an IF) only when humans in a large scale evolve their principles and their nature to the point that they need a different system where life naturally can morph into without injustice. Not because some people thing of capitalism as wrong. Nothing is wrong or right out of the context and the context for the communism to become a reality is not here yet in overwhelming force.
Rich people are just people that are there by their luck, smarts or cruelty, but I would not be that arrogant as to blame them or capitalism why humanity is where it is. They are us and products of us and we all are humans of this age.
No matter how extremists (liberals, commies, humanitarians) will see things, humans today live better than in any time before in history. MUCH BETTER in every aspect. Even the most remote, desolate and poverty stricken corner of the world has higher standards then 200, 100 or 50 years ago. The development and the raise in life quality all around the planet (despite terrible and unacceptable conditions in a still sadly large world population) in the last 50 years has no equal in history of humanity.
Capitalism is not something to blame. Capitalism is where we are today and it is better than any economical system that was before.
Communism might be the next stage in human history, but till that moment comes it is pointless on blindly asking for revolution.
You can transport a revolution, but usually that transcends into a chimera. You can't transplant it into the people’s heart and minds until they are inspired from within. How I wish the world was won’t make it so. If I can have an impact the first lesson is to work with what you have and bring it to the tipping point if you can through evolution. Revolution is a local event and to arrogant in what it claims. Evolution is much more all enveloping and sustainable. Revolution cannot be sustained because it has no real muscles; it has passion, heart maybe noble ideas, but inspired and fueled from local situations. It is always violent just because it is a spasm and a contraction, most of the time it is alien to the rest. It uses the revolted spirit not the illuminated mind to build and as a result of that it always crumbles or it precipitates to the previous status that tried to demolish.
When humans build (developed as a hole) a machine; heart and muscles efficient enough to sustain communism please don't let me out. I'd be waiting for that invitation maybe watching from upstairs in few hundred years