How is communism flawed

Without a price mechanism, supply and demand are difficult to balance perfectly over time. Term Price mechanism: An economic term that refers to the buyers and sellers who negotiate prices of goods or services depending on demand and supply. A price mechanism or market-based mechanism refers to a wide variety of ways to match up buyers and sellers through price rationing.

Example Ho Chi Minh raised a guerrilla army in Vietnam, promising them a Utopian communist future of rule by the people and a communal country. However, what transpired was a nation ruled by corrupt Party officials, with no rights or civil liberty.

The theory peddled by Ho Chi Minh was far removed from the practice of Communism once he was successfully elected. There are many other examples of how Communism has failed the people of a country. Whether this is down simply to corrupt leaders, or to a deeper flaw in the nature of Communism is a subject debated by many scholars. Disadvantages of Communism The economic and political system of Communism effectively dictates what can and cannot be done in the realm of business.

More specifically, in Communism: The government owns all the businesses and properties the means of production. There is no freedom of speech. Large or geographically-broad populations tend to be diverse, making it difficult to maintain a common goal or set of rules for shared effort andresources. Central planning is difficult to achieve. In both, the people own the factors of production. The most significant difference is that output is distributed according to need in communism, and according to ability under socialism.

Fascism allows individuals to retain factors of production, and many countries turned to fascism to ward off communism. Communism has a centrally planned economy; it can quickly mobilize economic resources on a large scale, execute massive projects, and create industrial power. It can move so effectively because it overrides individual self-interest and subjugates the welfare of the general population to achieve critical social goals. Communist command economies can wholly transform societies to conform to the planner's vision.

Russia's command economy built up the military strength to defeat the Nazis, and then quickly rebuilt the economy after World War II. Some say communism's advantages mean it is the next obvious step for any capitalistic society.

They see income inequality as a sign of late-stage capitalism and believe that capitalism's flaws mean it has evolved past its usefulness to society. They don't realize that capitalism's flaws are endemic to the system, regardless of the phase it is in.

America's Founding Fathers included promotion of the general welfare in the Constitution to balance these flaws. It instructed the government to protect the rights of all to pursue their idea of happiness, as outlined in the American Dream. It's the government's role to create a level playing field to allow that to happen. The most significant disadvantage of communism stems from its elimination of the free market.

The laws of supply and demand don't set prices—the government does. Planners lose the valuable feedback these prices provide about what the people want. They can't get up-to-date information about consumers' needs, and as a result, there is often a surplus of one thing and shortages of others. To compensate, citizens create a market to trade the things the planners don't provide, which destroys the trust in Marx's pure communism.

People no longer feel the government can give "to each according to his needs. They aren't pure communism but are transitioning from socialism, where the state owns the components of supply. According to Marx, that is a necessary midway point between capitalism and the ideal communist economy.

Modern communist societies rely on a mixed economy. In the late s, China began moving toward a mixed economy. It phased-out collective farms and allowed private businesses, but it still strictly follows a five-year economic plan. The government's policies favor state-owned enterprises in sectors vital to its goals. In , China became the world's largest exporter. In , it became the world's largest economy. The Soviet Union gave economic support to the impoverished country, and in return, Cuba supported its patron in the Cold War against its neighbor, the United States.

People in Cuba can now buy appliances, cell phones, real estate, and cars, and more than , people are registered as self-employed. For example, farmers can now sell goods to hotels. In , the nation won independence from France. In , it began decentralizing control and encouraging private businesses.

It's created tax incentives to encourage foreign direct investment because it wants to expand its economy beyond exporting its natural resources. North Korea. The country followed strict central planning with communal farming. It suffered famine and poor living conditions in the s and s, and in , it allowed semi-private markets to sell some goods. In , communist leader Ho Chi Minh declared his country's independence from France.

The French, backed by the United States, seized southern Vietnam. If I lay claim to one of David Koch's mansions, libertarian that he is, he's going to rely on big government and its guns to set me right. He owns that mansion because the state says he does and threatens to imprison anyone who disagrees.

Where there isn't a state, whoever has the most violent power determines who gets the stuff, be that a warlord, a knight, the mafia or a gang of cowboys in the Wild West. Either by vigilantes or the state, property rights rely on violence.

This is true both of personal possessions and private property, but it is important not to confuse the two. Communism necessarily distributes property universally, but, at least as far as this communist is concerned, can still allow you to keep your smartphone. The idea that we're all going around making free choices all the time in an abundant market where everyone's needs get met is patently belied by the lived experience of hundreds of millions of people.

Most find ourselves constantly stuck between competing pressures and therefore stressed out, exhausted, lonely, and in search of meaning. Once propertyless, they were forced to flock to the dreck, drink and disease of slum-ridden cities to sell the only thing they had — their capacity to use their brains and muscles to work — or die. Just like them, the vast majority of people today are deprived of access to the resources we need to flourish, though they exist in abundant quantities, so as to force us to work for a boss who is trying to get rich by paying us less and working us harder.

Capitalists are compelled to support oppressive regimes and wreck the planet, as a matter of business, even as they protest good personal intentions. And all the capitalist industry was only possible because white women, considered the property of their fathers and husbands, were performing the invisible tasks of child-rearing and housework, without remuneration. Three cheers for free exchange. Hence, million dead. For one thing, a large number of the people killed under Soviet communism weren't the kulaks everyone pretends to care about but themselves communists.

Stalin, in his paranoid cruelty, not only had Russian revolutionary leaders assassinated and executed , but indeed exterminated entire communist parties. These people weren't resisting having their property collectivized; they were committed to collectivizing property.

It is also worth remembering that the Soviets had to fight a revolutionary war — against, among others, the US — which, as the American Revolution is enough to show, doesn't mainly consist of group hugs.

They also faced and heroically defeated the Nazis, who were not an ocean away, but right on their doorstep. So much for the USSR.