Communism has been widely condemned since the collapse of the Soviet Union, but some aspects of it, such as public ownership of essential services, have proven practical. In its purest form, communism was a practical alternative to capitalism during the early days of the industrial revolution. However, the concept of every worker finding work according to their abilities proved difficult in practice. A modified form of communism may still be workable, but it is unlikely to be implemented on a large scale in a capitalist society.
With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the economic and political system known as communism suffered its greatest public condemnation to date. Although China, Cuba, and North Korea still practice modified versions of communism, by and large the world’s major economic powers have deemed the theory of a state-controlled economy a clear failure. Communism in theory may sound plausible, but communism in practice has been shown to encourage only the most corrupt members of government to seek advances within the system.
But is communism still a practical idea? In some ways, communism is just as practical as the capitalist concepts they attempted to replace. The problem still seems to be the implementation of the positive aspects of communism in a capitalist society that equates economic communism with political totalitarianism. Allowing public ownership of essential services, such as public transport or postal deliveries, hasn’t turned out to be an impractical idea, for example.
Communism in its purest form was a much more practical alternative to capitalism during the early days of the industrial revolution. Economically, for example, it made sense to encourage collective farming at a time when the world’s economies were still largely agrarian. Under economic communism, individual farmers could agree to pool all their resources to produce more crops for their fellow citizens without worrying about providing financial support for their own families. Under capitalism, if an individual farmer failed to produce a sufficient crop, he could face repossession of his land and be forced to find other work. Under Communism, however, a single farmer and his family would have survived even if his contributions were minimal.
One concept of economic communism that might have seemed more practical on paper than in practice was the idea that every worker had the right to find work according to his abilities. This may have worked in theory, but in practice it is nearly impossible to secure work that suits everyone’s interests or abilities. If we could all choose our jobs according to our personal desires, the world would be filled with models, musicians, doctors and other high-profile workers. There would not be enough unskilled or semi-skilled workers to fill necessary but unattractive job positions. The idea of matching workers’ skills to their jobs proved difficult in practice, since many workers under communism were unhappy with their assigned jobs and had little incentive to improve their productivity.
A modified form of communism might still be considered practical and workable, but it is unlikely to be implemented on a large scale after the collapse of the Soviet Union. As long as capitalism remains the dominant economic system, workers and politicians will always enjoy its obvious material advantages over communism. It would be very difficult to sell an entire country on the benefits of communism in an age where consumerism and private enterprise are encouraged and rewarded. Communism may have some practical elements, especially in the control of natural resources, but overall it has proven unworkable without at least some form of modification or capitalist influences.
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