Split Thread Is communism a viable alternative economic system these days?

[WildCat]

USSR had same thing. Show schools, show stores (within walking distance from hotels where foreigners stayed), etc. Heck, I know about a tourist who thought he was wise to such tricks, and asked to see a kindegarden -- not one his hosts wanted him to see, but one he randomly picked from the phone book.

They changed the number on show kindergarden's door.

I actually knew people involved in that.

In Soviet Russia, address chooses you!

 

[Pardalis]

Eastern Europe.

Like Belarus... I'm sure our friend Biker has only nice things to say about Lukaschenko.

 

[WildCat]

dude....half of europe has essentially socialist governments.

By "essentially" socialist, you mean "not" socialist, correct?

 

[JihadJane]

No. How much traction do anti-capitalist parties gain in elections? In Europe, you can see parties that have communist roots have moved to what is basically social democracy. Why? The old agenda to abolish capitalism is not electorally viable. Capitalism in some form is extremely popular among the electorates in Western democracies.

You also don't see people out and demonstrate in favor of capitalism. Why? Because capitalism isn't threatened at all.

The worldwide collapse of the capitalist economic system has only just begun. As the system slides deeper into crisis and becomes unable to provide enough bread and circuses, then anti-capitalism will become fashionable once more!

I suggest looking at India prior to mid-90's (when it ditched socialism), and after.

India pursued the "1%" solution, creating a vast, destabilizing wealth gap; enriching a tiny elite while leaving the vast majority of the population in poverty.

 

[bikerdruid]

By "essentially" socialist, you mean "not" socialist, correct?

by american standards, all of europe is socialist.

 

[Virus]

If you can't find socialism that works, find something that works and call it socialism.

 

[portlandatheist]

Economic freedom and political freedom are highly correlated.

 

[trustbutverify]

by american standards, all of europe is socialist.

Western Europe has most of its productive capacity nationalized?

 

[trustbutverify]

by american standards, all of europe is socialist.

Just curious- are you at all concerned with what Chavez has been doing regarding political and expressive freedom, or is that a non-issue?

 

[lionking]

The worldwide collapse of the capitalist economic system has only just begun. As the system slides deeper into crisis and becomes unable to provide enough bread and circuses, then anti-capitalism will become fashionable once again

Wishful thinking, nothing more.

 

[bikerdruid]

The worldwide collapse of the capitalist economic system has only just begun. As the system slides deeper into crisis and becomes unable to provide enough bread and circuses, then anti-capitalism will become fashionable once more!

i like that...'fashionable'...
i fear that greed will stand in the way of a peaceful people's revolution.
i still hope that the recent uprisings the world over are the beginning of a peaceful revolution,
increasing in momentum until the majority come to their senses.
greed is not the way.

 

[Pardalis]

Just curious- are you at all concerned with what Chavez has been doing regarding political and expressive freedom, or is that a non-issue?

I heard Chávez was very saddened by the loss of his little North Korean buddy. His little club of merrymen is getting smaller these days.

 

[Humes fork]

I heard Chávez was very saddened by the loss of his little North Korean buddy. His little club of merrymen is getting smaller these days.

Not really a surprise.

 

[Virus]

Communist Albania.



What idiot wants to live like that?

 

[timhau]

I heard Chávez was very saddened by the loss of his little North Korean buddy. His little club of merrymen is getting smaller these days.

The headcount is going down, but Kim the Third a.k.a. Well-Fed Leader intends to make sure that the club isn't getting smaller.

 

[Humes fork]

The worldwide collapse of the capitalist economic system has only just begun. As the system slides deeper into crisis and becomes unable to provide enough bread and circuses, then anti-capitalism will become fashionable once more!

This is delusional.

India pursued the "1%" solution, creating a vast, destabilizing wealth gap; enriching a tiny elite while leaving the vast majority of the population in poverty.

India before the 1990s pursued Gandhian economics.

 

[El Greco]

The problem is not communism per se, but the way it has been implemented so far. Meaning that it was like monarchy, with loads of corruption. Political systems don't have too many differences between them; it all depends on the implementation. E.g., I believe that the best political system would be a monarchy as long as the monarch was a benevolent one. Today's democracies are not really democracies, they just provide the illusion of the choice to the stupid masses.

BTW, in case you don't know, Cyprus -a EU member- has a communist party governing the country. But it's still a democracy and from discussions I've had with Cypriots, nothing much has changed. It's totally insignificant what you call the system, corruption will find a way to intrude in EVERY system. Communism in Eastern Europe just had much more corruption and oppression than the people could take. The "western", "capitalistic" type of oppression is more subtle - eg the bankers rule but the people feel like they can choose who among their employees (= politicians) will execute the bankers' orders. This is how things are in Cyprus today, but now they call it "communism". It makes no difference.

ETA: Communist countries of the past were EXTREMELY convenient for the more subtle, economical dictators of the western societies. They could point at them and scare the people with the "communist threat". They can't do that so easily anymore, now that China is actually more of a capitalistic economy and North Korea doesn't scare anyone.

 

[kingstuart]

dude....half of europe has essentially socialist governments.

Which countries?

We still countr Eastern Europe as the USSR

 

[kingstuart]

The problem is not communism per se, but the way it has been implemented so far. Meaning that it was like monarchy, with loads of corruption. Political systems don't have too many differences between them; it all depends on the implementation. E.g., I believe that the best political system would be a monarchy as long as the monarch was a benevolent one. Today's democracies are not really democracies, they just provide the illusion of the choice to the stupid masses.

If something keeps going wrong it's likely their is an error in the instruction manual?

There are genuine alternative in the UK it's just nobody votes for them.

 

[Virus]

The problem is not communism per se, but the way it has been implemented so far.

Central planning doesn't work.