# Why doesn’t Stalin’s version of communism work? “From each according to their abilities, to each according to their labor?”

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesn-t-stalin-s-version-of-communism-work-from-each-according-to-their-abilities-to-each-according-to-their-labor/1032137>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [August 4, 2026, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesn-t-stalin-s-version-of-communism-work-from-each-according-to-their-abilities-to-each-according-to-their-labor/1032137 "2026-08-04T11:50:45Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 86

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**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\
**Post date:** [August 7, 2026, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesn-t-stalin-s-version-of-communism-work-from-each-according-to-their-abilities-to-each-according-to-their-labor/1032137/86 "2026-08-07T17:27:06Z")

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> [@msmith537](#):
>
> I think this is important to note that our American system of government makes us the [Best Country in the World](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-and-or-where-do-us-citizens-learn-that-the-usa-is-the-best-country-in-the-world-etc/1031943/205) because it was designed with a series of controls that provide a stable mechanism for failure and recovery in the event of corrupt or incompetent leadership.

Well, you currently have the most ruthlessly corrupt, self-serving, and utterly incompetent president the US has ever seen. Where are these controls and why aren’t they working? Congress is supposed to be a check on presidential power, and Congress is AWOL, having literally done nothing – they may as well not exist. The Supreme Court has done very little, and Trump is working around the very few rulings that have been against him. Meanwhile important national institutions are being seriously damaged and international relations with the US are at a historic low point. So what’s being done?

ETA: I’m not sure why your post here links back to my post in the other thread. It’s not in any way responsive to anything I said there.

> [@msmith537](#):
>
> Most ideologies seem take an approach of "as long as we select perfect, competent leaders who perfectly follow or religious, economic, and political dogma, everything will run perfectly! Then inevitably they collapse or the system is stuck with them until they die and some new leaders appears who fools everyone into thinking THEIR religious, economic, and political dogma is really the correct one and if everyone just follows THEM, everything will run perfectly.

It’s actually the opposite. Parliamentary systems, for example, particularly those in the Westminster tradition, make it far easier to get rid of an incompetent or corrupt leader than the US presidential system. A good example is that the UK has had five different prime ministers in just the last four years.

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