A Controversial System of Control
Communism, and It's Advantages
Why Communism?
1. People are equal.
In a communist regime, people are treated equal regardless of education, financial stability, and so on, in the eyes of the government. Economic boundaries don’t separate or categorize people, a situation that eliminates crime and violence.
2. Every citizen can keep a job.
In a Communist system, people are entitled to have jobs. Because the government owns all the means of production, the government can provide jobs for at least a majority of the people. Everyone in a communist country is given enough work opportunities for them to live and survive. Every citizen, however, must do his or her part for the economy, to receive pay and incentives.
3. An internally stable economic system
In communism, the government rules the economy so stability is out of the question. Every citizen is required to work in order to receive benefits, and those that don’t have corresponding sanctions. This creates an incentive to participate and to help in economic growth.
4. Establishment of stronger social communities
In communism, there are certain laws, rules and goals in allocating resources and responsibilities. If the citizens abide by these laws, this leads to a harmonious spirit of sharing with one goal. This consequently builds stronger social communities, and an even stronger economy.
5. No competition.
In communist societies, everyone is created equal. This means that everyone can work hard equally and harmoniously without stepping on each other’s backs. All the work, responsibility, and all the rewards reaped are shared equally among the citizens. If people have no sense of envy, jealousy or ambitions that counter the goals of the state, then a harmonious economic development can be maintained.
6. Efficient distribution of resources
In a communist society, the sense of cooperation allows for healthy communistic systems. This means that communist societies are very efficient at resource distribution even in localized areas. This is very important especially in times of need and in emergency situations.
Communism is a political thought based on sharing of efforts and sharing of resources. Although today, no self-sustaining country has used ideal communist policy, modified forms can still be considered practical. However, as long as the advantages of capitalism remain to be the dominant economic system in the world, citizens and countries will obviously choose it over communism. There seems to be no room for this political ideology in this age of consumerism and private entrepreneurship, but communism still has its practical aspects, especially in controlling natural resources.
Creator(s)
Karl Marx co-authored The Communist Manifesto with Friedrich Engels. Their manifesto set down the principles on which modern communism was to evolve. He said history is a series of class struggles between owners of capital (bourgeoisie) and workers (the proletariat). As wealth became more concentrated in the hands of a few capitalists, the proletariat would rise up in bloody revolution. Private property was abolished, which caused all things to be collected and distributed by the government (who represented the workers).
How Communism Gained Popularity
As Marx's tenets had instructed, it had be to spread worldwide to achieve utopia. Some countries had adopted communism to help realize that goal, including the Warsaw Pact Nations: Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Poland and Hungary (communist from about 1945 to 1991). The Warsaw Pact was a military treaty signed by these countries and Russia. In short, it guaranteed that they would come to each other's aid if targeted by another country, Yugoslavia, North Vietnam, although still technically communist following the unification of Vietnam, Yemen, Somalia, Cambodia. It's interesting to note that the communist governments in all of these countries (except North Vietnam) collapsed right around the same time as the Soviet Union, which was a huge support to the smaller countries.