- 26 Oct 2017 14:34
#14856333
As a member of the Western capitalist world, I have, of course, been brought up believing that the capitalist system is superior to Communism and socialism, and that Communism never turns out well. Because of that, I was always confused about why some people still think Communism could work and is a good idea, so I decided to dig deep and find out what I could about their perspective.
I'm no economist, so I cannot speak authoritatively, but here in the U.S., at least, Communism is seen as a failure as proven by the collapse of the Soviet Union and the adoption of free market policies by so called Communist countries such as the People' Republic of China. I think even Cuba is beginning to move towards private sector employment. Also, alot of the countries are not places you would want to live in like North Korea or the aforementioned China.
A Communist did point out to me that the U.S.S.R. did experience a growth in its GDP shortly prior to its dissolution as shown in the graph below, while after that point, it seems to have taken a huge dip before going back up, albeit higher than it was when it was still the Soviet Union. Since the chart only sequentially lists the dates by 2, it is hard to tell whether the year 1991 was also a time where the GDP went up, or if that is when it started to decline. I think 1991 is the year that the U.S.S.R. collapsed.
Also, Cubans do not seem to need to worry about unemployment, healthcare, or literacy, unlike in some Western democracies. Now, many of the products manufactured in Communist countries were inferior to their counterparts produced in capitalist country, at least that is what I have heard, although I do not know if the Soviet Union started to improve the quality of its products later improved or not. The same goes for Cuba. Maybe the inferiority of those goods were more of a product of dictatorship rather than Communism itself as an economic system, though a lack of competition from the free market or private sector could also be contributing factor to that.
What are your thoughts?
I'm no economist, so I cannot speak authoritatively, but here in the U.S., at least, Communism is seen as a failure as proven by the collapse of the Soviet Union and the adoption of free market policies by so called Communist countries such as the People' Republic of China. I think even Cuba is beginning to move towards private sector employment. Also, alot of the countries are not places you would want to live in like North Korea or the aforementioned China.
A Communist did point out to me that the U.S.S.R. did experience a growth in its GDP shortly prior to its dissolution as shown in the graph below, while after that point, it seems to have taken a huge dip before going back up, albeit higher than it was when it was still the Soviet Union. Since the chart only sequentially lists the dates by 2, it is hard to tell whether the year 1991 was also a time where the GDP went up, or if that is when it started to decline. I think 1991 is the year that the U.S.S.R. collapsed.
Also, Cubans do not seem to need to worry about unemployment, healthcare, or literacy, unlike in some Western democracies. Now, many of the products manufactured in Communist countries were inferior to their counterparts produced in capitalist country, at least that is what I have heard, although I do not know if the Soviet Union started to improve the quality of its products later improved or not. The same goes for Cuba. Maybe the inferiority of those goods were more of a product of dictatorship rather than Communism itself as an economic system, though a lack of competition from the free market or private sector could also be contributing factor to that.
What are your thoughts?