Whats up with America and hating communism? Seriously, its just another form of government whats the big crisis? amirite?

In colonial times, there was an oppressive government that controlled many aspects of everyday life. We don't want to revert back to that. We don't want to lose our freedoms.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

Cool. How is that related to communism?

by Anonymous 14 years ago

Communism is government controlling a majority of peoples' lives. Limited freedoms. It could even go as far as everyone has the same religion.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

I know what communism is. In theory, it doesn't restrict freedoms as much as many would have you believe. However, it usually does in reality. I agree with the post though because full on capitalism isn't much better then communism. There has to be a balance between the two.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

There does have to be a balance. Even extremists should understand that. Without certain restrictions, we would have monopolies and pools and everything, but with too many restrictions, there's no competition and things get even pricier. Republicans without Democrats is near an anarchy, and Democrats without Republicans is near complete government control.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

No it's not. Research communism and look for an unbiased definition.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

It's because Americans (and most people actually) dislike or don't understand what the point of communism is. Despite your jokes, it actually isn't about the government taking control of everyone and using them as slaves (even though, that's what it usually ends up being). Communism is about everyone is equal and that what you do is for the benefit of society (where as Capitalism is doing what benefits you or just who you care about). Communism doesn't work out in real life, but on paper, it seems logical.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

I wouldn't say it doesn't work out in real life, the people in communism are generally happier than the capitalist the danger is in corrupted governments which can destroy the structure, it only works if everyone is working for the common good

by Anonymous 14 years ago

Communism usually results in corruption, like you said. That's why I don't think it works out in real life.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

Communism doesn't exist so I don't understand how you know that the people are generally happier, could you clarify that?

by Anonymous 14 years ago

Communism does still exist to a certain point but look at China, it's become much more capitalistic than before but people still can't choose their job, or easily exit the country however the people are fairly content even more so when china was even more communistic back in the '80.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

Theyre not Communist though, they're Socialist. Communism has only existed once in history with the early Christian Church, and it failed.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

communism: 1.a theory or system of social organization based on the holding of all property in common, actual ownership being ascribed to the community as a whole 2.a system of social organization in which all economic and social activity is controlled by a totalitarian state dominated by a single and self-perpetuating political party. 3.the principles and practices of the Communist party. You are thinking of communism by only the first definition by the second and third definitions China is most definitely communistic as the soviet Union was back in the 1950's, the Chinese can also be called socialist though especially today, both of these countries were successful until the officials became corrupted

by Anonymous 14 years ago

thanks for saying that so well. Communism isn't such a bad idea on paper, its just that people can't stand being equal to everyone else and start to exploit their power.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

It's not just on paper that it seems logical, Marx said that when human society reaches a certain point in the evolution of society, then and only then will communism work. Some people got obsessed with the idea of communism and like all extremists, when people didnt agree they killed them. It didn't work in the 60s because he society wasn't at the stage where communism can work.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

yeah the idea of communism was good except whoever invented (I think it mat have been an offshoot from Marxism, invented by Carl Marx) forgot to take into account human nature, which is pretty important haha

by Anonymous 14 years ago

funnily enough though, countries who use communism seem to be thriving of late (China and Cuba for eg.)

by Anonymous 14 years ago

Cuba isn't thriving.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

Cuba isn't thriving because it basically lives of tourism wich is doing good but i don't think it's good enough. I don't want to get into details because i'm not well informed on the subject.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

China still calls itself communist, but it's much closer to capitalist nowadays.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

Be careful, capitalist extremists might get offended by your comment, I've had a good share of arguments on this site about it.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

I don't know many capitalist extremists, so I don't really care. The point I'm trying to make, though, is that people are allowed to own business in China, they have McDonalds and various other big name American owned places there. It's really just not Communist at all anymore.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

Lol, I wasn't saying you were wrong.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

My friend's parents are Polish and lived in Poland when it was under Soviet rule. There's a reason they came to America. Communist in theory is a really nice idea, but people are far too selfish for it to actually work. There's no incentive to work hard; you can be working your ass off and the person next to you could be slacking off, yet you both get the same pay. That's not fair. It's impossible for communism to ever truly work in a large society. Maybe it could work in some kind of small hippie commune, but not a whole nation. Just look at what happened to the Soviet Union.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

Agreed.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

That was a very wise statement.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

Ah, thank you. :)

by Anonymous 14 years ago

Government sucks, no matter what system, or what party is in control. It should be limited.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

Real communism would work

by Anonymous 14 years ago

In America, our system of government is democracy, and our system of economy is capitalism. In communist countries, communism is both the government and the economy. This is too much control by a select few people, who tend to be corrupt to the point where what they call "communism" isn't the definition, it's just them controlling everyone. I have nothing against these other countries or the people in them, but I love America.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

Actually we're more of a republic than a democracy. Which works much better. We are a "democratic republic." It's a good balance, and works well for how many rights we have.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

Yeah, I agree. The thing is, America wasn't founded for total freedom. It sounds bad, but we were actually just founded on the same principles England already had, except we decided we'd force the government to respect our rights, which England wasn't doing.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

And we weren't a monarchy, we had religious freedom, and we had a code to live by instead of a king's law. Other than that we are identical!

by Anonymous 14 years ago

Actually, England wasn't just "do what the king says." The Magna Carta, English Bill of Rights, and the Petition of Right all made up the English Constitution, and they did limit the king's power quite a lot, putting more weight on the people and the parliament who represented them. The reason American colonies had their britches all in a bundle was that for many, many years, England had left them alone. They hadn't really interfered, and so the colonists had made their own government systems and compacts and governing documents. Then one day, King George III decided he needed money because England was way in debt from the French & Indian War. He noticed he hadn't really been taxing the colonies, so he started doing just that. England's government was taxing us like crazy -- well, actually, it wasn't that crazy, but we were used to not being taxed at all -- and since *we had no representatives in the government that was three thousand miles away*,

by Anonymous 14 years ago

we couldn't do a damn thing about it. Basically, the English constitution gave us all these rights to representation and a say in our government, and the Crown was totally forgetting that. We were being taxed like English citizens, but we didn't have English rights. And that was what finally made America snap and write the Declaration (which alludes to many concepts already outlined in the English constitution).

by Anonymous 14 years ago

Yes, I know all that. Even though there were restrictions, the king still forced people to attend church and stuff. The American colonists decided that enough was enough, and now we aren't a constitutional monarchy.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

Well yeah, but we didn't found America that way in 1776. It kind of just happened because England didn't pay any attention to us, and the Declaration is just an expression of what was already there.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

America sucks. You're all fat hookers.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

Communism seems too good to be true, but when you really look at it, it's a bad form of government. It seems fair, but when you break it down, it's a little too fair. Should a slacker get the same amount of money that a hard-worker gets? No. I am against communism.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

never would have guessed :)

by Anonymous 14 years ago

Yeah I know right? I make myself so unobvious. xD

by Anonymous 14 years ago

I think you could have found a better word than unobvious.... Anyways, you make sense, but I think what people who want communism would argue is that WITH communism, you wouldn't have Bill Gates the MoneyWhore and that kid on your street who can't afford his milk. Perhaps, the solution is fixed incomeS determined by a tribunal of some sort. Lazy workers get little pay, but homeless get a chance to ascend the economic ladder. PLUS, greedy people with six cars would not exist (theoretically), thus increasing the money being circulated amongst those who need it. Everyone able-bodied would be required to work at NEW jobs created with the money that rich kids do not now hoard. Obviously, this would never work because you'd never get anyone in power who isn't corrupt, and it would be just too hard to part Sean Kingston from his 300000$ Jamaican flag-embroidered car. (On another topic, he's totally not jamaican, listen to his accent)

by Anonymous 14 years ago

I think you're right about it being neat to decide incomes case-by-case, but still limit the ridiculous amount of windfall someone can make. Of course, the problem is, people don't make their money from the government. They get money from their consumers and clients. So in this case, the consumers and such would have to pay the money for the goods/services to whoever was handing out money, who would in turn decide what goes to whom. I guess all I can think when I read that last statement is that there's no way that huuuuge obligation can *not* get screwed up by whoever's in charge.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

Because a. they are online gamers who think commy jokes are funny when they have a very vague idea about the bad side of communism. Or b. They are well informed and realized that it COULD be a very good form of government if done correctly, but it doesn't actually work in the ways that some countries are doing it.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

haha!

by Anonymous 14 years ago

If people weren't corrupted, and workers weren't lazy, communism could be a good thing

by Anonymous 14 years ago

Communism is a type of economy, not government. If there was a society using true communism, there would be no gevernment at all. just people being 100% the same.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

I think communism would work in a small picture, not like whole cities/countries. I'm thinking a small group of friends living together and taking care of each other, and doing what they want. Nobody controls anybody, but everyone helps each other

by Anonymous 14 years ago

Nazis started as a political party. That's just another form of government.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

china's official government label is "communism with chinese characteristics" they couldn't be completely communist because that would jeopardise their international trade which is basically their economy.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

Anyone who knows about government knows this... Communism does not work.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

Personally, I'm not a massive fan of the application of communism. But I don't understand why the US is, and definitely was during the Cold War, so //threatened// by it. Sure, it was expanding, but it didn't pose a massive threat to the US. I guess that's just what containment was so never mind.

by Anonymous 11 years ago