Communism vs. democracy

Ok, so I've been researching both out of pure interest lately. Communism actually can be very effective and good for a country if corruption didn't exist. I think that democratic countries have made communism look worse than it really is. Can anyone...

point out more good points for communism such as free education? Educated answers only please

You are comparing two different things.

Democracy, Monarchy, Despotism, Plutocracy, Oligarchy, etc are political systems.

Capitalism, Communism, and Socialism are economic ideologies.

You can have any combination of political and economic ideologies. You can have a democratic communism just like you can have despodic capitalism.

In our cold war people talked about democracy vis a vis communism to paint communism as the opposite of freedom. Of course that is how corporatists and industrialists want us to think of collectivism.

In practice communism works best in small homogeneous groups. Some of the most successful examples of communism have been in religious communes. Communism so far has failed when used in larger more heterogeneous groups..

Well, Communism has a great sound to it. The way the Soviet Union had presented it was wrong.

Communism does work, but only on a very small scale, like at the town or county level. Anything beyond that will breed corruption. In order for a system like that to work, there needs to be an underlying level of trust among members of the population that each person will contribute to the communal good. If that doesn't exist, communism will fail.

A lot of believe think its a good idea, but people just aren't ready for it so it'll never work. But, some good things; everyone is equal, everyone gives to central government, everyone receives a share, free health care, free education, no one will ever starve.

It all sounds good on paper, but the actual thing just simply wouldn't work over a great amount of people.

Take a look at any country that is Communist, its citizens have little to no rights, they are under constant watch, at some point they are killed by their govt. for wnting change.

True. I figured he or she meant Capitalism though.

Like Steph said, communism works on paper but not in real life. Socialism actually works a bit better.

In the states we have a democracy with socialism mixed in.

Well basically what everyone just said, it's simply not practical...
Also, without competition, you dont have advancement...
why should you do a better job if you'r still getting paid the same amount?

but as for the pros
well I'll get back to you on those (gone to ask my friend, he's constantly defending it)

As everyone said, its sounds like a good idea, but reality is much different. In order to carry out such extreme government control it turns into a totalitarian state, and that is the part that is undesirable. Eventually it falls under its own weight as the USSR did.

Ty, I don't believe that advancement and competition are discouraged in communism. The most talented are still the paid the most. If you become better at your job, you advance. I think the phrase is something like: to each their own measure.

I guess I'm thinking of Cuba where all progress has halted? (what were they just allowed to use cells?)

But then again communism has been twisted in different places...

I did promise you some pros

0% unemployment
same standard for everyone
free education/medical care (although arguably this happens under socialist states too)

Even though Cuba has a lot of problems it is rather amazing what they have accomplished with such limited resources. They have universal health care; in fact they even provide doctors and medical education for several other Latin American countries. In most measures Cuban health care is superior to that in the US. Their life expectancy, infant mortality, AIDS rate, etc are better than ours.

One of the things I point out is that when resources are scarce that Communism becomes the rule. One of the first thing that happens among survivors of a ship reck or plane crash is that the concept of private property goes away. All resources are pooled for everyone's mutual survival. By keeping Cuba poor the US embargo makes Communism the only practical solution there. If we were trading more with them our dollars would cause more greed, selfishness, and other virtues of Capitalism.