Do you feel there are any good qualities at all to Government communism?
Diggleblop, what kind of a weak question is this?
You’ve paid your 14 bucks. You’re playing with the big boys now. So next time, bring your A-game. Don’t just phone in your question, bring something to it. You want to talk about Communism, fine, that’s a great topic for debate. But try a little harder next time.
OK, I want you to go back out there and give 110%. There is no “I” in team!
It can accelerate development of very primative cultures to an industrial power at a rapid pace.
There are so many issues to communism, that I didn’t point out just one thing. I don’t want to plant any ideas into people’s minds about where I’m going with the question. So, I left it open for general comment.
Also, I’ve asked more great questions on this board in my short amount of time here than you ever could.
Proof of my question asking ability. 
Need some ibuprofen? You must get some muscle ache patting yourself on the back so much.
Theoretically, it explicitly provides for the basic welfare of all citizens. Of course, that’s theory, and thus far hasn’t been true in practice.
I think your cite says all that needs to be said about the issue.
It’s an egalitarian theory - it posits that people will be honored or empowered based on their individual abilities not on any special privileges. Its central tenets of providing for the needs of all citizens and calling forth the best of the abilities of its citizens is excellent in theory.
Yeah, I think the thing is: it’s not such a bad system in theory. Much like religion. It’s just the damn bloody *people * involved that keep mucking it up.
Of course, even in theory, I have to wonder about things like personal freedom - is it really possible to get people to do shit jobs willingly without rewarding them beyond their “needs”? Or do we have to coerce people to take those jobs in a communist system? I also don’t see a good way to deal with lazy people - what’s the motivation for working harder if you can’t get more stuff, power or accolades as rewards? 98% of people won’t simply do good work for the pride of it.
Communism is an attempt to deal with the conflict between the wealthy classes and the poor classes created by classic laissez faire capitalism. To the extent that it at least TRIES to deal with the issues of economic inequity, it is a huge improvement over classic laissez faire capitalism. That’s right, I’m saying that hard-core communists are better people than classic laissez faire capitalists, which are still around in the US in surprising numbers.
The problem with communism, as has endlessly been noted, is that it cannot compete with capitalism because it pays no attention to rewarding productivity. Very bad idea, if “idea” is the right word here.
Somewhere between communism’s total disregard for productivity and the slavish devotion to the wealthy typical of laissez faire capitalism is a system that will reward productivity and yet keep the wealthy from stealing everything in sight (as is happening right now in US society). Europe’s democracies with well developed social safety nets are probably farther along the road to a good solution than the US is, but they’ll have to find a way to juice up their productivity to globally competitive standards without dismantling the social safety net to make it work. My idea is to use government controls on the marketplace to keep the middle class robust, rather than wealthy (who will invariably mainpulate the playing field to get what they want anyway).
First society to figure it out takes all the marbles.
Really cool-looking fur hats.
I see.
Good qualities of communism?
It’s one of the systems of government that is based on a rosy view of people as essentially good? Pie-in-the-sky stuff, but there’s something really fluffy-bunnies-and-rainbows about that kind of naivete, it’s kind of endearing.
Revolutionary Communism’s been responsible for freeing some people from pretty oppresive governments. Usually they get replaced by other oppresive Communist regimes, but still, props for doing something, hey?
Those CCCP t-shirts from the 80s were pretty cool. Also Sputnik.
errmm, that’s about as far as I’m willing to give Central Government-style Communism props. It’s major failing is not going far enough. Anarchism’s the Way, Comrade.
I’d like a definition of your “communism” first, please. Because there’s “Marxisim” (what Marx wrote) and Leninism (what Lenin taught) and Stalinism (what Stalin did) and Maoism (what Mao invented) and …
… and the strange American tendency to call any interference of the state in European countries “communist” or socalist…
And then I’d like a clearer, conciser question. What do you mean with “good qualities”? Do you mean benefits people living in communist countries have per se; or compared to other countries with a capitalistic system? With or without counting negatives?
E.g. Cuba under Castro has the benefit of free schooling and health care for everybody - unlike most other capitalistic Latin American countries; but the negative of secret police and not free opinon and press.
Or do you mean theoretical qualities?
Or do you mean if a communist country performs better in terms like GNP compared to other countries?
constanze, do you have to ask such serious and thoughtful questions? You’ll make diggleblop’s head spin. 
To answer the OP, I would say no. It goes against a fundamental tenet of humanity…people are much willing to work harder if it benefits themselves versus their neighbor.
That is not to say that most people are not generous and willing to lend a helping hand. But there’s a difference between donating to charity and being forced by the government to donate to charity.
Whether the government is a large country or a small 60s-style commune, eventually, it will break down. After all, why should I bust my butt and see the fruits of my labor go to help my neighbor, when, if it sit back and do nothing, the fruits of my neighbor’s labor will come to me without me lifting a finger?
So, “From each according to his ability, to each according to his need” IMHO, is doomed to fail from the get-go.
Love Evil Captor’s take on it, that’s exactly what I think.
Just wanted to add, I temped at an AFL-CIO union for a couple of weeks once, and it was quite interesting. Lots of labor posters everywhere, I felt like calling everyone Comrade. When it was time to stuff envelopes, everyone stuffed envelopes. Which was kinda nice, as I was accustomed to doing a lot of envelope stuffing on my own.
The problem was, nobody was allowed to do a better job than anyone else. I was filling in on the bookkeeper’s maternity leave, and after a week or two I saw some chances to do things more efficiently, based on how other offices did things. But improve a process? Innovate on a computerized form? Discover an opportunity for saving money on phone services? Nope. Nada. Zip. My co-workers were delightful, but the higher-ups were hostile and hyper-controlling. They didn’t want anyone to be better than they were, on even a tiny scale.
Basically what’s already been posted, but I was surprised to experience it in this way.
That’s not entirely correct. Communism does reward productivity. The problem is that it is terrible at communicating what needs to be produced and in what quantity resulting in gluts of some things (like opulent rail stations) and shortages of other things (like food). The advantage of a market economy is not so much that it rewards personal productivity but that the market is highly effective at communicating supply and demand requirements through pricing. Thousands of buyers and sellers, free to set their prices, will maximize production to best meet the wants and needs of the people far more efficiently than any centralized ministry of economics ever can. The problem with Laissez-faire capitalism is similar to the problem with communism. Left unchecked, there can be a tendency towards collusion, monopoly and other anti-competitive behavior which degrades the efficiency of the market.
So everyone who is wealthy is a thief? No one earned their money honestly?
Just for shits and giggle, let’s use China as an example for communism. That help? 