Pros and Cons of Communism

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Karl Heinrich Marx the father of the most effective economic system we know of was born on May 5th, 1818 in Trier, Germany. Marx was the oldest boy that survived of nine children which I would call fate. Marx was born into a Jewish background which exposed him to prejudice and discrimination that may have been a factor in his questioning of the role of religion in society and contributed to his desire for social change (McLellan, 2019). In the month of June 1847, a secret society by the name of the League of Just met in London in hopes to create a political program, they sent a representative to our now older and wiser Karl Marx; Marx overcame his doubts and with the help of his comrade Friedrich Engels. With the powerhouse of Marx and Engels the name of the League of Just wasn’t capable of describing the righteousness of the ideas to come, thus the Communist League was born… they immediately enacted a democratic constitution. Marx and Engels were tasked with composing their program, they worked from December 1847 till the end of January 1848. After impatient threats from the London Communists, they promptly accepted Marx’s work as their manifesto (McLellan, 2019). A few riots and an overthrown government later communism was founded in the Soviet Union by Vladimir Lenin in January of 1912. Marx believed that democracy creates destruction over time as a result of the ‘owners’ would eventually stop the ‘non-owners’ from having access to required resources. Lower socioeconomic teams would wage ‘war’ with the elites in society over financial gain, property, and wealth. Communism eliminated those factors, basing it on the thought that everybody ought to have identical possibilities to make a life for themselves. Although there are exceptions to classism in communism (namely oligarchs and high-level government officials), you don’t get a start in life as a result of your family, you're employed to what you’re smart at doing and what others need (Amadeo, 2019).

To understand the true good in communism we must take a journey into the hellscape of the twisted mind of Adam Smith where a wicked system of a ‘free market’; the evil idea of capitalism emerged from the deepest pits of hell to hurt society in a free for all style of economy. Private ownership of capital enables heretics to gain a monopoly power in product and labor markets. People with this monopoly power can exploit their position to charge higher prices. This is just not right and despicable. These people with monopoly power can pay lower wages to workers. In capitalist societies, there is often great inequality between the owners of capital and those who work for them (Comparing Economic Systems, n.d.). This parasite prays on a majority of the society it is involved with, the rich get richer and the poor stay poor and oppressed. Capitalism relies on non-public possession of the means of production and on individual economic freedom. Most of the means that of production, like factories and businesses, are in the hands of non-public people and not by the government (Comparing Economic Systems, n.d.). Non-public owners create selections regarding what, when, and how to supply and the way abundant merchandise ought to value. Alternative characteristics of laissez-faire economy embrace the following: free competition, supply and demand. Free competition is the essential rule of this devil of an economy is that individuals ought to compete freely while not interference from government or the other foreign source (Amadeo, 2019). The parasitic capitalist economy assumes that the foremost meriting person can sometimes win. In theory, costs are to be kept as low as can be as a result of customers can obtain the top products for a lower quantity of currency. In an exceedingly toxic capitalist system, costs are determined by what percentage of merchandise there is and the way many folks have a need for them. Once the amount of merchandise increases, costs tend to drop. If costs drop, demand sometimes will increase till the supply runs out. Then costs can rise all over again, however this all depends on the demand being high. These laws of supply and demand form a vicious evil cycle to regulate costs and keep them from raising too high or dipping too low (Amadeo, 2019). A system that is not entirely equal to the people is unjust and has no reason to be in practice, if everyone is entirely equal it would eliminate greed and jealousy that destroys nations and separates us as a species more and more.

Cons of Communism

Unfortunately, nothing in this world is perfect and even a system as good as communism can have some flaws. In theory, communism is an almost perfect system it is when it’s put into practice that leaders let the power go straight to their head and become corrupt just as in any other political system. This poses the question of are the wrong people being put into power in order to properly run these systems, and how do we find the right leader? If a communist system is to be put in place, precautions and restrictions must be in place to keep the leader from being corrupt (Chief, n.d.).

The design of communism feels Orwellian once enforced. The only party in power will manage the message that the people receive inside their territory of power. There's seldom any contact with the world outside of their country that has not been screened by the government before contact. Which means the population will assume they're completely knowledgeable on current events, however in reality, they're kept in the dark for the advantage of the community (Chief, n.d.).

The most vital disadvantage of communism stems from its termination of the free market. The ideals of supply and demand don't set costs. The government takes care of that. Planners lose the integral feedback these costs give, concerning what the people desire. They can't get up-to-date data involving the consumers' wants/needs, and as a result, there's usually a surplus of one product with shortages of others. To compensate, the people produce a black market to trade the items the government doesn't give, this eradicates the trust in Marx's pure communism. individuals do not feel the government will offer 'to each according to his needs' (Chief, n.d.).

Under communism, you’re primarily operating to earn a paycheck that you’ll most likely never get to see. You get enough to supply for yourself, however the rest of your wages and productivity is given to the community for the greater good. Many folks living inside this kind of state aren’t following their dreams as a result of the lack of decision they have and don't have the ultimate say for his or her own career. In several instances, folks simply surrender attempting to figure and let the government give the fundamentals for them. The pros and cons of communism can be viewed as utopian ideals, however the outcomes tend to example dystopian societies instead. It's a system of state that appears smart on paper as a result of it focusing on equality and building everybody up at the same rate (Chief, 2019). It's conjointly a system that struggles in application as a result of the stress that the party, state, or government places on its individual followers.

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Pros of Communism

Communism incorporates a centrally planned economy; it would swiftly mobilize economic resources on an outsized scale, execute huge projects, and make industrial power. Communist command economies will completely remodel societies to adapt to the leader's vision. Some examples would be Stalinist Russia, Maoist China, and Castro's Cuba. Russia's command economy engineered up the capability to defeat the Nazis, as well as quickly remodeled the economy after World War II (Chief, 2019). Everyone who needs employment beneath communist superintendence gets a job. Some individuals are compelled to figure as a result of their skills are necessary for the larger sensible. You don’t get to stop operating as a result of you would like to live in an alternate way (Chief, 2019). You are doing what the government tells you to do and nothing less, that is typically what you’re best at doing. There aren't any roles thought-about superior over others during this governments format. You’re either giving the directions, setting the policy, or implementing what you’re told to try and do (Chief, 2019). Some would possibly argue that this idea, taking from socialism, offers a lot of equality than what a free-market system dictates.

Some say communism's benefits mean it's the most logical next step for any capitalistic society. They see financial gain difference as a symbol currently stage free enterprise and believe that capitalism's flaws mean it's evolved past its quality to society. They don't notice the evils that capitalism's flaws are detrimental to the system, despite the part it's in. America's founding fathers enclosed promotion of the final welfare within the constitution to balance these flaws. It educated the government to safeguard the rights of all to pursue their plan of happiness, as made public within the aspiration. It's the government's role to form a fair chance and equal opportunities for all people.

The most detrimental principle of communism is that no private possession of property ought to be allowed. Marx believed that non-public possession inspired greed and impelled individuals to knock out the competition, despite what the results may be. Property must be shared, and therefore the individuals ought to ultimately management the economy. The government needs to exercise the management within the name of the individuals, the minimum in the transition between capitalist economy and communism. The goals are to eliminate the gap between the wealthy and poor and convey concerning economic equality.

The top priority for a communist government once it involves power is to supply instructional opportunities to every individual in the public. Once the Communists took over the government in China 1949, their initial task was to show people that were illiterate the way to browse and write. They brought business skills to urban and rural communities, showing individuals the way to be productive in producing, agricultural, and industrial positions. This method gave the individuals in the country sensible skills that can be accustomed improve their overall quality of life – although granted, that improvement came at the discretion of the government (Comparing Economic Systems, n.d.).

In the capitalist West, industrialization was a by-product of rising agricultural productivity. As output per farmer increased, fewer farmers were needed to feed the population. Those no longer needed in agriculture moved to cities and became industrial workers. Modernization and rising food production went hand in hand. Under communism, in contrast, industrialization accompanied falling agricultural productivity (Caplan, n.d.). The government used the food it wrenched from the peasants to feed industrial workers and pay for imports. The new industrial workers were unfortunately former peasants who had fled the wicked conditions of the collective farms. One of the most basic concepts in economics is the production possibilities frontier (PPF), which shows feasible combinations of, for example, wheat and steel. If the frontier remains fixed, more steel means less wheat (Caplan, n.d.). In the non-communist world, industrialization was a continuous outward shift of the PPF driven by technological change. In the communist world, industrialization was a painful movement along the PPF, or to be more precise, it moved along the PPF. The other distinctive feature of Soviet industrialization was that few manufactured products ever reached consumers. The emphasis was on ‘heavy industry’ such as steel and coal (Caplan, n.d.). This is puzzling until one realizes that the term ‘industrialization’ is a misnomer. What happened in the Soviet Union during the 1930s was not industrialization, but militarization, an arms build-up greater than that by any other nation in the world, including Nazi German (Caplan, n.d.). Another instance of communism being more beneficial than most types of governments is the fact that between the years of 1940 to 1973 the Soviet Union’s the percent of economic growth went from 14% to about 17% establishing it as one of the world’s most dominating superpowers. By the year 1987 other economic superpowers began to struggle and had their growth percentages drop while the Soviet Union remained steady and strong as any communist economy would.

Results

It is very clear that communism in practice has not functioned to its full potential, however that does not mean that it is an idea that should be scrapped. I fully believe that the pros outweigh the cons and that some adjustments can and should be made to ensure that communism could succeed and thrive. For example, financial gain, complete equity for the people, and education for the future generations that will be the next to care to our planet and species are all human necessities. The complete transparency of the government and its people would ensure that it succeeds and is not that hard to achieve. The lack of meaningful jobs could easily be countered by allowing people who are good and knowledgeable as well as enjoy a certain job have the freedom to do so, but the problem with that is that some people would want to not put in as much work as their comrades… which only has one solution, the Gulag. That’s a joke, obviously that would be cruel and evil the real solution would be to educate people and make education free and easily available so people are more inclined to learn and find interest in certain subjects to find a job that fits them.

It’s no secret that the United States doesn’t have the simplest relationship with communism; ‘dirty commie’ is the associated insult towards communism. A lot of this is caused by the Red Scare of the 40's and 50's, that fueled the torturous Cold War as well as influencing the conflict in the wars in peninsula and Vietnam, and that had a long-lasting impact on however individuals within the United States view this form of government (Comparing Economic Systems, n.d.). Since then, the American government has interfered in multiple countries — supporting coups, assassinating leaders, and anti-communist propaganda — in order to remove communism resided or was even thought to appear. In any case, in recent months, communist ideology has started to catch the eye of more and more American people. The Communist Party of USA — a communist organization on a national scale with seven thousand members registered at the time of this essay - has reported an enormous spike in interest. With that in mind, our western society is in the clutches of the deathly parasite, that’s name sends shivers down my spine, capitalism and we should eradicate our free market economy in favor of communism as well as implicating the necessary precautions in place so our leading government would not let absolute power corrupt absolutely. These precautions must be determined before any real steps are taken towards conversion to communism, as of this moment the best idea would be to find a leader who would be okay with making personal sacrifices for the greater good for example, being treated with the same standards and expectations as the people that he/she leads, as well as being completely transparent with the people of their country.

References

  1. McLellan, D. T., & Feuer, L. S. (2019, October 31). Brussels Period. Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/biography/Karl-Marx/Brussels-period
  2. Comparing Economic Systems. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.ushistory.org/gov/13b.asp
  3. Amadeo, K. (2019, October 30). 5 Differences Between Communism and Capitalism. Retrieved from https://www.thebalance.com/communism-characteristics-pros-cons-examples-3305589
  4. Chief, E. in. (n.d.). 12 Pros and Cons of Communism. Retrieved from https://vittana.org/12-pros-and-cons-of-communism
  5. Ball, T., & Dagger, R. (2019, November 13). Non-Marxian Communism. Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/topic/communism/Non-Marxian-communism#ref276335
  6. Benjamin, R. W. (1968, March 1). Communism and Economic Development. Retrieved from https://www.jstor.org/stable/1953329?seq=6#metadata_info_tab_contents
  7. Caplan, B., Nye, J. V. C., Heilbroner, R., Smiley, G., & Bordo, M. D. (n.d.). Communism. Retrieved from https://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/Communism.html
  8. Chief, E. in. (2019, January 4). 15 Major Advantages and Disadvantages of Communism. Retrieved from https://connectusfund.org/15-major-advantages-and-disadvantages-of-communism
  9. Williams, L., & Learning, L. (n.d.). International Business. Retrieved from https://courses.lumenlearning.com/suny-internationalbusiness/chapter/reading-thedisadvantages-of-communism/
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Pros and Cons of Communism. (2022, December 15). Edubirdie. Retrieved April 20, 2024, from https://edubirdie.com/examples/pros-and-cons-of-communism/
“Pros and Cons of Communism.” Edubirdie, 15 Dec. 2022, edubirdie.com/examples/pros-and-cons-of-communism/
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Pros and Cons of Communism [Internet]. Edubirdie. 2022 Dec 15 [cited 2024 Apr 20]. Available from: https://edubirdie.com/examples/pros-and-cons-of-communism/
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