COMMUNISM! A word that has brought fear to many Americans since the early 1900s. What exactly is communism and what makes it so bad? Most people hear about everyone living by the same rules and how there is no rich or poor everybody’s equal but do they ever stop to ask how are they going to get the money to make it like that? Well, in my paper I’ll show how communists plan to make everybody equal.
Communism has been around for hundreds even thousands of years. It was first made popular by *1 V.I. Lenin after he read the writings of Karl Marx. *2 It was first practiced in a government by Russia after the Revolution in 1917 The idea sounds like a good one: everyone shearing and get equal shares in everything but heres an example of what it would be like : Say you lived in a small town that had 100 people (18 or so families) living in it. Well, when your government became communist you did really care because you lived in a tight knit community so everybody shared with their neighbors any way. So being a very hard worker you start tilling up your 50 acres of land but after you get most of your land tilled a man from the government comes and tells you that from now on that you no longer own any land but the government will let you take care of 20.6 acres as long as you send some of the produce to them every year after harvest. Well, of corse you get upset but the man from government says not to worry that the same goes for all of your town and that everybody has an equal share. He also tells you that the government will pay for all the seed for you to plant. This appeases you a little since you won’t have to pay for the seed any more. So you work and toil till harvest only there was a drought this year so it went hard on most of your neighbor but you were lucky to have a creek next to the land you took care of so you had raised a bumper crop.
Then the man from the government came again and told you since this had been a bad year he would have to take all of your crops but that you could have enough for a week and when you run out come to the community store house for more.
America, throughout the ages, has always despised Communism and Communistic beliefs; however, during the 20s to around the 90s, there was a deeper hatred for Communism and a fear that lingered in most Americans’ hearts. Communism is a political theory that was derived from Karl Marx, advocating class war and leading to a society in which all property is publicly owned and each person works and is paid according to their abilities and needs. The majority of Americans strongly disagreed with
Since the end of World War II until the mid- eighties , most Americans could agree that communism was the enemy. Communism wanted to destroy our way of life and corrupt the freest country in the world. Communism is an economic system in which a person or group of persons who are in control. The main purpose of communism is to make social and economic status of all individuals of the same . Deletes inequalities in property ownership and wealth distributed equally to everyone . The main problem with this is that a person who is rich can be stripped of most of his fortune to someone else can have more material goods and be his equal .
A Comparison of Communism versus Capitalism Communism versus Capitalism is a debate that has raged on for over two centuries. Whether to allow everyone equal opportunities and to do with those opportunities as they please or to mandate class equality in order to keep peace has in itself been the cause of war. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels saw the working class of the world—the proletariat—being squashed by the greedy business owners—the bourgeoisie. In their view, the bourgeoisie owned too much and the proletariat had no chance to make their own fortunes. In Marx and Engels Communist Manifesto, they propose doing away with private property, nationality, and even countries in order to take power away from the bourgeoisie.
Communism ensures a lot of power and equality, as in “Harrison Bergeron”; however, the acts of both governments differ from each other and from the U.S. government. Communism today has no copyright laws, no private property laws, and the government owns the economy in its entirety. Communism stresses the ending of both religion and the entire morality established upon religion. Communism theoretically tries to improve respect within society, but instead it abolishes all concepts of morality (Communism and Amorality). The structure of communism encourages the establishment of classless and stateless society based on the common title of the means of production (Structure of Communism).It tries to offer an alternative to the problems assumed to be inherent with capitalist economies and the heritage of imperialism and nationalism.
The opinion of communism in American culture has been negative for as long as com-munism has been around. Throughout history, the United States, has told its citizens that com-munism is evil, taught children in schools that it is a dangerous idea, and has even gone to war to prevent the spread of it in foreign nations. But is it really that "evil" of an idea? In The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, the idea of communism is painted in a much different picture than what is depicted in the United States. Although it was a controversial concept at the time, Marx published this work in 1848, and he provided a convincing case for the benefits of communism. He does this by comparing and criticizing the social classes of citizens throughout history while utilizing different types of appeals to convince the reader that this type of govern-ment should be put into action. Marx believed very strongly in the ideas he put forth in this mani-festo and it shows by how aggressively he conveys the benefits and defends the criticism towards his concept; he is in fact so persuasive in the style of his argument that his theories are still relevant today.
Communism is the study of how everyone is at peace and works together. There is no need for competition or armies because no wars are going on. The gap between the rich and the poor is eliminated and everyone has the same wealth to make everything perfect and fair. All human activity goes towards benefiting each other. Private property and all private businesses are eliminated. Instead of working for yourself to make a living for yourself, you are making a living for the country or society that you live in. In document 3: Friedrich Engels says that “ above all, (the government)... will have to take control of industry and all branches of production out of the hands of… competing individuals, and instead institute a system as whole, that is for the common account, according to a common plant, and with the participation of all members of the society. It will… abolish competition...Private property must therefore be abolished.” This creates an equality in the economic system. There are economic equalities now, because equality in the amount of work will get you an equality in pay. This eliminates the amount of money between the rich and poor closing the gap between the two. All of this equality meets the needs of the proletariats. The Proletariats were the working people in the lowest class. The workers worked and then the bourgeoisie took the money from the products and the proletariats got nothing from their
Communism as it is known today was first proposed by Karl Marx in 1848 when he published The Manifesto of the Communist Party (Leone 13). Marx envisioned a Utopian society where everyone was equal. Such a society would combine growth with fairness by allowing the bureaucrats to make most of the decisions concerning the economy (Samuelson). As in The Smurfs, there would be no money, and everyone would contribute what they could and receive what they needed (Schmidt). There would be one manor source of income, and the entire collective would contribute to that source.
Joseph Raymond McCarthy was a Republican Senator from the state of Wisconsin between 1947 and 1957. Between 1950 and 1954, McCarthy became noted for unsubstantiated claims that there were Communist and Soviet spies and sympathizers inside the federal government.
There is always at least one odd duck, which stands out from the crowd. The same is true when it comes to politics. One of the most controversial political ideas to ever come to power, is communism. Branching from the socialist party, in 1848, extremist Karl Marx expressed his theories in The Communist Manifesto. This is a text that is still debated today. In an article in the Journal of Social Society, William Niemi wrote about Marx’s ideas still present today. “The rethinking about Karl Marx and Marxism continues some 20 years after the fall of the Soviet dictatorship and its satellites.” (Niemi). Within this volume of ideas, Marx expressed many highly debated topics, the most controversial of course, being communism itself. Though many of
During the late 1920’s up until World War II, the United States went through a period of severe economic depression, also called the “Great Depression”. Multitudes of Americans everywhere were inadequately clothed, nourished, and sheltered. As hunger and unemployment reached never before seen levels, despair reigned. During these times Labor Union enrollment dramatically increased and Americans were searching for a panacea to their social and economic problems. It was at this time that groups of citizens, jobless and hungry, looked upon Communism favorably. These individuals longed for what seemed to be a utopian society, which they viewed in the USSR, where everyone was employed and cared for. Communist political parties sprung up everywhere, literature and newspapers in support of Communism proliferated. More and more, seeing the success and the promises, the enrollment in Communist parties increased. Members of the American Communist party idealized the leaders of the USSR, Lenin and Stalin.
Communism is supposed to be a system under which all property would be held in common.
Though the rewards are pleasing to the ear, the path to obtaining the benefits of communism is a violent one. This strict governing idea was derived from Communist Manifesto, a book written by two German economists, Karl Marx and Fredrich Engels, who declare that many problems in society are caused by the unequal distribution of wealth. These two believe that “Communism deprives no man of the ability to appropriate the fruits of his labour. The only thing it deprives him of is the ability to enslave others by means of such appropriations.” To achieve the goal of happiness and prosperity for all, the lines that distinguish the differences between the rich and poor must be erased. Obviously, the rich will never voluntarily give up their goods or status; therefore the figureheads must force equality among the citizens. Communism places their citizens, whether they be the wealthy or the laborers, into working classes that specify their contribution to the government. With such balanced placement of the people, individuality is impossible for any single person to achieve.
Common misperceptions have convinced Americans over the years that communism is corrupt form of government. In reality, the leaders of so called communist countries are corrupt. Communism is an economic system derived by Karl Marx, which in theory is composed of publicly owned property and wealth spread equally among the population. According to Merino in his preface to What Are Some Concerns About Capitalism?, “Communism’s defining feature is the public, or communal, ownership of capital” in which “the means of production owned and utilized by all for the common good” where there is no difference in the wealth between the people. Communism and capitalism have opposite values, while communism is beneficial for society as a whole, capitalism
Poverty is everywhere and no matter how hard our government tries to eliminate it, it simply cannot. To do so it must first reformat itself so that it may do its job in a more efficient manor, thus helping all aspects of life. Converting our current system into a capitalistic government would in fact help alleviate the current situation.
There is a long-running debate about whether communism or capitalism is preferable and shows more of beneficial aspects. Capitalism is defined as an economic system in which investment in and ownership of the means of production, distribution, and exchange of wealth is made and maintained chiefly by private individuals or corporations. While communism is a system of social organization in which all economic and social activity is controlled by the state. The principle of capitalism is if one is successful and hardworking will keep improve and progress in life. While the principle of communism is to keep all the people the same, a lot of people may say that this is a good thing but when talking about real life this would add laziness and demotivation because hardworking people would gain the same credit as lazy people. Capitalism and communism are the two main economic systems that are used by governments nowadays. Obviously capitalism is a much better economic system to be used by a state; practical uses and statistical facts qualify capitalism as much more successful. Also, capitalism is more beneficial to the state, common citizens, and business owners. It would be very useful to test the two systems according to practical uses of the two systems on states and monitor which states succeeded and which states failed.