(03-15-2015 10:39 AM)Crebman Wrote:  

(03-15-2015 10:21 AM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  

(03-15-2015 09:43 AM)QuestionSocratic Wrote:  

(03-15-2015 07:32 AM)Fitbud Wrote:  I wasn't talking about Stalin specifically but communism in general. It was easy back then to believe that the idea of communism could work.

There are people today who will argue that Soviet Communism wasn't true communism and therefore, it wasn't a failure of pure communism.

To repeat.

In theory, theory works well in practice. In practice, it doesn't.

The theory of a totally socialist society always fails in practice because it ignores that most basic of human motivations - that of reaping the fruits of one's labor.

While there are many other reasons that socialism fails, I think this is, in the end, the most important one.

Socialism fails because it is inherently a highly unstable system. Lets take a look at a place where socialism 'works', the military. It's success is predicated upon two key components. The first is that the service-members are the sellers with the military, which has near perfect knowledge of its market. The second factor in success is that there is a reservoir for people who are non-compliant or who disagree with the original terms to transfer to, the civilian world.

It is the lack of these two facets, combined with the fact that the architects of all planned societies (academics and intellectuals) always imagine themselves at the top are what lead to socialism suffering from mass killings and a lack of resources.

(03-15-2015 03:12 PM)wahoowa Wrote:  

Quote:Lots of people swallowed what Stalin had

Did you misspell Clinton?

I knew I should have reworded that LOL