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Generally opposed to any system that prohibits the private ownership of the means of production. Socials or Communism won’t overtake Capitalism absent some world changing shift in the political beliefs of the majority of the world or huge technical innovations that make humans working unnecessary.
Communism is a pipe dream for people who don’t spend any time in the real world with large groups.
Socialistic policies can and do work. Pure socialism will not.
It’s not a coincidence that the countries with the best economies and the highest QOL are capitalistic.
I don’t think that actual socialism or communism are going to ever replace capitalism as America’s primary economic system. I do think that social services funded by taxpayer money that are designed to help all citizens, similar to the ones being used in Western Europe, are things that while still compatible with capitalism, would serve as a necessary safety net to help people and make a more stable country.
We already have a mixed market economy and I think that is going to be the case in the US indefinitely, at least in its current form.
Command and control economies lead to rampant inefficiencies, misallocation of goods and labor, and in most cases, widespread poverty.
Capitalism is by far the most efficient means of distributing labor and goods in an economy. The elegance of it is it relies on people being fundamentally selfish rather than selfless.
Market failures can and do often occur and cause negative outcomes for people. I’m in favor of a much more robust social safety net than what we have now (sometimes markets leave people behind and that shouldn’t strip people of basic dignity). I’m also in favor of a strong regulatory framework for market failures (stop pollution, exploitative practices, rent seeking, etc…) And in cases where market conditions don’t set up private industry to provide a public good, I support the government providing it directly (education, public transit, scientific research, etc…)
But I absolutely support capitalism as the core of our economy.
I don’t think the political conditions exist to shift to Marxist economic systems in the foreseeable future in the United States, and in my view that’s a good thing.
Socialism and communism have failed every single time they have been tried.
The root issue is the abolition of personal property and free enterprise as goals requires the use of force: the so-called “dictatorship of the proletariat”. And it is at this stage that the ideals of communism and socialism get hard stuck. Once a dictatorship is established, that polity has essentially zero reason to relinquish its power.
And that dictatorship is necessary post-revolution because socialism and communism both require 100% participation. One can (and many do) drop out of and do not participate in the capitalist system — capitalism does not require participation. Neither socialism nor communism can allow for free enterprise nor for private property. The state must suppress and eliminate these in order to ensure the continuation of the socialist or the communist model. While this is handwaved away as only being temporary, history has shown that this oppression never goes away without the implosion of the model entirely.
There are many variations on what socialism is, but I don’t think any government really is entirely socialist under the definition of having the means of production, distribution, and exchange owned or regulated by the community as a whole.
Certainly no government is communist under the definition of a stateless society with no private property, social classes, or money.
Ultimately, I don’t think any country, let alone the US will ever have a truly socialist or communist system. The US is too individualist and full of people whose family immigrated for freedom and financial gain. If anything, the US will move to a mixed economy with more social safety nets while still remaining otherwise capitalist.
I don’t think people are altruistic enough for communism to be a reality, but I do think some form of socialism would work and be positive within a democratic system with more powerful unions, more co-ops, and employee-owned companies.
Some socialist policies are good, but I don’t think we can or should be socialist or communist.
And for the record, 99% of the people who will call themselves socialist on this post aren’t. You’re capitalists who like healthcare, don’t conflate the two.
I’m an anarcho-communist. I believe everyone is better off working together and sharing resources. I don’t believe in an overarching state so that’s why I hate the USSR and China and all that. I don’t believe you can force people to do something. But I do believe in working together for the common good and really don’t like the individualist at all costs mindset of Capitalist America.
I like a lot of socialistic policies, but pure socialism will never work.
Communism is only realistic on a very local level. There’s no way it could work for a country.
Lots of different ways to define these things, so that always confuses a discussion.
The government running and owning some things is good. Most Americans agree with this. Where the lines should be is where you find disagreement.
At one extreme, people only want the government to own and maintain roads. At the other extreme (and an extreme rarely found in the US), people think the government should build the roads, run the factories and stores, and do everything in between. Most people think of socialism as somewhere in the middle of these things.
Communism, as in the political system that relies on people never acting in their own self interest as the end goal and as a way to get there, relies on a government committee to selflessly look after the people’s interest and not their own, was never anything but a pipe dream. Governments calling themselves communist while acting like your typical self interested oppresive dictatorship don’t really fit the spirit of the original communist philosophy, but seem to be a pretty consistent result of trying to implement communism on a national scale.
Communism, while well-intentioned, can never work as intended for any community larger than a few people. It relies on a perfect world that has never existed and will never exist. Communism is entirely reliant on every member of the society acting against their own self-interest, which will never happen. There will always be *someone* trying to take advantage of the system. The result is that communism inevitably leads to heavy-handed authoritarianism.
Socialism has both positive and negative attributes. Certain policy elements of it have an appropriate place even in primarily capitalist systems; *some* socialism-influenced ideas are helpful as guardrails to ensure that capitalism doesn’t go too far and get too out of control.
> do you think they could ever truly replace capitalism in the US?
No, nor should they.
I don’t support Communism or Socialism (the actual version not the Fox News spin) and I don’t think they have a chance of replacing capitalism in the US. They simply don’t work on the scale of a country. I support capitalism as I believe it’s the system that creates the best quality of life on average, however I do wish we had more welfare programs to help and poor and universal healthcare.
No, it will be capitalism just in a radically different form from what it is now.
There’s no way to get a country to socialism or communism without establishing an authoritarian government, and it’s not like that authoritarian government goes away after or is magically free of oppression and corruption once established.
That’s why you can’t institute socialism or communism beyond small groups of people. No one I’ve encountered who promotes pure socialism or communism has been able to provide a feasible solution to that fatal problem.
Well-regulated capitalism with good government supplementation is the best you can do. I’d argue that right now, the US’s main problem is that we are less capitalistic than we should be in many ways because a lack of market regulation has effectively created a bunch of non-competitive monopolies.
That said, I imagine that AI and automation coupled with a shrinking working population will eventually necessitate Universal Basic Income and force us to completely restructure how our current capitalistic systems work.
A system based on the assumption of unlimited growth is just not going to be possible in the coming decades.
When a super computer that monitors everything people consume and want, and also has control of production and distribution, socialism or communism will be possible.
Until then, no. Our congress can’t even balance a budget, thinking they could balance the economy is as wishful thinking as the possibility of elephants flying by flapping thier ears really fast.
They are both proven failures.
Even when people point to successful “socialist” countries they always name some place like Norway which is actually a capitalist economy.
Note: this does not mean I am against social programs like welfare or having public healthcare for people. Those things are not socialism and can exist in a free capitalist economy as they do in most developed countries.
I support Socialism mainly because I believe a worker should have the right to the fruits of their labor, and private ownership inevitably leads to exploitation. Evidence to that is our entire history as a country. Do I think Socialism will replace Capitalism in this country? Not right now, and I don’t think it could have the chance to unless Capitalism in this country completely collapses…but given the growing disparity in wealth, the high polarization in politics, the worsening of the climate, and just the overall average age that a country historical lasts, I wouldn’t be surprised if that happens in our lifetime. But even after the inevitable collapse, I have no idea what prevailing system will actually emerge from the ashes.
Capitalism is a morally bankrupt economic system which institutionalizes the oppression of the working class using the threat of state violence against its own citizens to enforce this oppression. The only morally just stance is that it should be wholly abolished.
Socialism is such a broad term that it’s incredibly difficult to give a complete answer. It’s like saying “what do you think about vegetables as a food?” At it’s most basic level socialism is just an economic system whereby the workers own and control the means of production. That can mean anything from an economy which looks broadly similar to the one we have now with regulations about workers being owners of their companies, banning stock markets, etc. Or it can mean a radical restructuring of the economy to something wholly unrecognizable to what we have today.
Communism, if we’re talking about the state communist system of the USSR or Communist China is pretty morally bankrupt, too. They had lofty goals when they started, but they focused too strongly on building a system which focused more on maintaining power for the party and the people running the party than on achieving the goals they claimed to strive for. Like capitalist systems, they, too, used state violence against their people to enforce their system. I’m not a fan of state communism.
Personally, I think institutions which put power over others, especially the power to commit violence against others, are bad. The incentives put on a person who wields power like that are inevitably going to separate them from the people and warp their worldview to one which is incompatible with liberty. I’m opposed to any political or economic system which gives some people power over others.
All that said, I think overthrowing the current capitalist world order will be VERY VERY difficult. Not necessarily impossible, but incredibly difficult, and probably something that will be rather gradual. But I won’t say capitalism will never be replaced. There was a time when the feudal political order and the divine rights of kings seemed impossible to overthrow, yet here we are today.
Communism is a complete fantasy that somehow gets millions killed every time it’s tried and tends to turn every country who tries it into an inefficient, corrupt, authoritarian nightmare. I like some socialist policies and would want to implement them but no way in fuck is it going to be good for a government
Communism is a vile system that led to the deaths of 100M people in the 20th century. Having spent time in Soviet states during Communism, it is impossible to overstate how horrible a system it is.
Socialism is not realistic as a system for a large diverse country. Socialism is a system that believes the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole. Personal property is not a thing. This means that incentives to innovate are removed.
Socialism is also built on the belief that man can be perfected, if only we can eliminate man’s greed. That’s just not realistic.
Socialism works in kibbutz’s. One culture. Small enough to build alignment. Not as much concern about property rights.
Social security is a socialistic policy. So is Medicare, medicaid, free school lunches, food stamps, WIC, unemployment, the library system, subsidized public transportation, Pell grants, free Covid vaccines, and a number of other good important things in this country that we do for the public good.
Pure communism is bad. Pure socialism is bad. Pure capitalism is bad.
A combination of capitalism and socialism to protect the common good and inspire people to achieve is good.
Communism is inherently tyrannical and antithetical to American values.
Capitalism requires strong social programs to work best. That’s why it’s failing in the US and sustainable in other countries.
Communism has failed time and time again, it’s all but a pipe dream for lazy people who think others will do the work for them.
Socialism seems to only work in homogenous societies where everyone shares the same values, which is very limited.
Capitalism is by no means perfect, but it has lifted a lot of people out of poverty. Even Karl Marx admitted as much in his critique of capitalism.
Entire books can and have been written on this subject.
The short version is that while I can potentially see aspects of Socialism adopted in the United States I do not think we will ever see wholesale ownership of capital and the means of production in the hands of the “workers.” In other words, no. I don’t think it will ever entirely replace capitalism.
Note that “Socialism” is different from a “Social Welfare State.” I think that is far more plausible in the long term. Though I think it will still be less than most governments in Europe.
OP, which is your favorite communist country — the USSR, China, Cuba, or Venezuela? What makes that a place you’d like the US to emulate?
They suck nothing good comes from them except human suffering.
At a fundamental I dont think an alternative to capital value system needed to make communism work exists. Things may have intrinsic value but in every case that is subject to the individual rather then the collective. Any attempt would result collapse with in the span of a couple decades due to inefficiencies and purposeful undermining.
Well, you’d have to define exactly what you view those systems to be for a detailed answer, because there are many variations that can be called that.
But generally speaking I think they’re systems that are largely doomed to failure by having too idealistic of a view of human nature. And the band-aid solutions to apply to those systems for when humans turn out to be greedy, selfish, corrupt, etc are much more problematic to fit into the overall system without ruining the concept.
This isn’t to say that there are zero ideas coming from there to borrow from, but they don’t make a good basis to build society on.
They’re both tyrannical, oppressive ideologies that have done nothing but destroy every nation that adopts them. For my reason why, I offer the entirety of modern history.
In the US we generally like not starving, just have a look at our obesity stats
You can’t build a system based on a theory of human nature that is not grounded in reality. It can never succeed because it’s based on a falsehood. There is no such thing as “the masses” when it comes to humankind. That might exist among ants, but it’s not true of humans. Every human is an individual and acts like one.
Communism simply isn’t a viable social model.
Neither of those systems work and the end game of each of them are poverty, loss of human rights, and they usually lead to authoritarian governments and dictators. Communism is far worse than Socialism but both system have been historically noted to not work. Also, no these systems will never replace capitalism in America. We’d fight for that.
Communism brings out the worst of humanity. Or at least the worst of humanity exploits it to get to the top.
Capitalism is good in theory but doomed to fail
Most political and economic systems are good in theory. How they work in reality is just trial and error.
Maybe someday I believe just as how individual greed is ruining the advantages of capitalism making it so bad is just as likely if not moreso likely to ruin socialism and communism, people across the world will need to grow beyond greed for any system to work no matter how good it seems on paper
Communism and socialism are utopian ideals that only work on paper.
In reality, people are too selfish for them to work, and you will always end up with a small circle of elites with everything in power as the rest of the nation starves.
Socialism and communism will never work in the US or anywhere else for that matter. Also I shouldn’t need to say this, but the Nordic countries with market economies and social programs are not socialist.