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How Communism Works

by Alia Hoyt

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In a perfect world, everyone would have food and shelter, and a true utopian society would be devoid of sexism, racism and other forms of oppression. But for most of the world's population, this perfect society just isn't possible. Communism is one proposed solution to these problems. Most people know what communism is at its most basic level. Simply put, communism is the idea that everyone in a given society receives equal shares of the benefits derived from labor. Communism is designed to allow the poor to rise up and attain financial and social status equal to that of the middle-class landowners. In order for everyone to achieve equality, wealth is redistributed so that the members of the upper class are brought down to the same financial and social level as the middle class. Communism also requires that all

Russian revolutionaries and leaders Joseph Stalin, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin and Mikhail Ivanovich Kalinin at the Congress of the Russian Communist Party. Hulton Archive/Getty Images

means of production be controlled by the state. In other words, no one can own his or her own business or produce his or her own goods because the state owns everything. According to the philosopher Frederick Engels' "Principles of Communism," the plan for

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ultimate financial and social equality is built on the principle that the system should spread around the world until all countries are on board [source: Engels]. This central goal has caused capitalist nations to keep their guards up, fearing that communist economic practices might spread to their countries. Who are communists, and why do non-communist cultures consider them radical? Does communism work in practice? Next, we'll take a look at the father of communism.

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http://history.howstuffworks.com/cold-war/communism.htm

6/10/2012

HowStuffWorks "How Communism Works"

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20 comments Gareth Ramsey

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how the hell is communism meant to end oppression, by placing a dictator in place to decide what career you will follow or what education you will get, how could anyone possibly say this will end oppression, THIS IS A FORM OF OPPRESSION! for a society to be completely free of oppression one must be allowed to make ones own choices unfortunately that means that communism cannot support itself, society needs competition to move forward and without this competition we have no incentive to improve, there will be no innovation, so society stops caring, we stop trying to better ourselves, so we start heading in a backwards cycle, people need a dream, and with communism people cannot have this dream! people are not robots to be programmed to obey, a dictator will obviously oppress his people because time and time again we have been shown power corrupts or have we decided to forget this, there have been countless examples and you know what? people have never, will never and can never change! people are selfish by nature! and therefore people need competition in order to move forward, unfortunately as many examples in nature have shown us, in this life its survival of the fittest! people need to open their eyes to realise that conmmunism takes the drive out of society! Reply 5 Like April 25 at 10:06am Top Commenter Whatcom Community College

Keegan McCoy

This is pure trite, just like the socialism article. Apparently HowStuffWorks is either a part of the propoganda machine, completely incompetent, or most likely both. Reply 7 Like October 5, 2011 at 3:54am

Jeff Aaron Hickey University of Alaska Fairbanks Is there a better article on Communism? This is terrible lol. Reply 7 Like July 19, 2011 at 5:57pm

Ryan Gibson Denver, Colorado This article is built on a very basic knowledge of communism, many of the statements are just plain false. Built on assumptions. For example: "If Stalin had his way, communism would have become much more widespread". This states that Stalin was a follower of Trotskyism, Trotsky, his biggest opponent in the bid for power following Lenin, advocated world communism which Stalin advocated communism for Russia and only in the interest of Russia. The Warsaw Pact was built as a defensive mechanism from western aggression (mostly Germany). Least we forget that Stalin had Trotsky brutally murdered for his views and worldwide communist followers were put to death under Stalin. Poor, poor article. Reply 18 Like April 1, 2011 at 5:46pm Emma Pederson This article was written to provide basic information on communism. It isn't a scholarly article. It is an article that anybody who wants to read should be able to understand. It is supposed to be simple. If you want a lot of detail, try researching like the person who wrote this did, Reply 2 Like February 23 at 7:46am

Ryan Gibson Denver, Colorado Emma Pederson that is not the point I am making, my point is that it is providing false information, which is completely at odds with providing basic information on the topic. Reply 2 Like February 23 at 8:14am Top Commenter

Bruce Stewart

Uhh. Better brush up on your history there because the Soviet Union did impose communism on it's Eastern European satellites. Where did you go to school and learn that Stalin did not want to export communism to other countries? WOW! Reply View 4 more Kevin Berg Works at Cinma Colossus Just reading the first paragraph, this is socialism and not communism, there's no ownership or money or anything of the sort in a real communist system. Reply 1 Like October 16, 2011 at 12:09pm 1 Like April 18 at 11:09am

Julian T. Neuhauser Richmond, Virginia When I came across this article I thought "oh no, another anti-far-left article that will have millions of vile comments from right wingers and their close minded spawn" but then after seeing the thorough corrections and reasonable (not slanderous or explicative filled) discourse that made up the comment section, I was so pleased that I just had to say something. This makes me feel hopeful. The battle against hegemony is a long one... Reply 10 Like May 5, 2011 at 4:22pm Stle St leskadet St msheim S h l fH dK k

http://history.howstuffworks.com/cold-war/communism.htm

6/10/2012

HowStuffWorks "How Communism Works"

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http://history.howstuffworks.com/cold-war/communism.htm

6/10/2012