8 Reasons Why Communism Doesn't Work
Okay, so we’ve all heard the quote “communism works in theory, not in practice.” But why doesn’t it work in practice? Using Russia's past as an example, here are eight of the main reasons why communism doesn't work.
In the USSR people weren’t allowed to leave the country. If someone left, the government would interrogate their whole family. If they returned, the person was jailed indefinitely. Yikes.
Western products and ideas aren't allowed
Anything considered ‘western’ was illegal. This included books, music, and movies. People would smuggle these into the country. This smuggling, of course, was highly illegal. Fahrenheit 451, anyone?Sharing is caring
Private property didn't exist. Any land was everyone’s land. For example, if someone owned a farm, everyone owned that farm. Whatever was grown on that farm was taken and redistributed ‘equally.’
- Nobody gets rich
Nobody could get rich. Everyone had to work pretty much the same jobs and earned the same amount of money. Pretty fair, right? At least until someone realized that they could do the bare minimum and make as much as someone working their hardest. There weren’t any incentives to try hard either. No matter what you did, your position wasn’t going to change.
- We don't make decisions, the government does
Nobody got to choose the job they wanted; they were essentially just assigned a job wherever they were needed. Once again, there was no incentive to work hard.
Crazy corruption
There was a ridiculously high amount of corruption. Bribes were required for even simple tasks to be completed. Parents could even bribe teachers to improve their kid’s grades.What freedom?
There was no freedom of religion, mainly because there was no religion that was legal. There weren’t many other freedoms either.
- Big Brother is always watching. Always.
There was a constant feeling of “Big Brother is Watching.” People that said anything against the government vanished mysteriously. If someone didn't like you, all they had to do was accuse you of hating the government.
But, they never really reach the communist stage, because before they achieve the so-called "dictatorship of the proletariat" they end up ruining the nation. They generally begin to increase public spending and to indebt the state, raise taxes or devalue the currency, one of the two, all to finance the populace, which quickly becomes addicted to state subsidies. when the bureaucracy and the desidia come, they end up killing the productive apparatus, and when they run out of capital, boom! the collapse.