Are you a Communist, and if so, why?

Originally posted by OptimusSubprime
The fact that within your estate all is shared by all is great. The distinction is that you have chosen to be that way. It was your free and sovereign choice to make and no one forced you to share.

Yes because caring for other member of society, as opposed to letting them rot and die, is just so horrible. Here's where your logic fails, all first world democratic nations are a hybrid of socialistic principles and capitalism. None of the industrialized democratic countries would function without taxes, and there is an economic reason why communities and nations pool their resources in order to provide things like roads, police force, firemen, medical research, hospitals, military, etc. Because it is cheaper than if individuals had to go out and do these things themselves. Also this idea that is pushed by conservatives that they do not want to "share" or "give their money to others" is incredibly hypocritical considering that in the U.S. the red states are the ones who take in more federal money than the blue states, (with the blue states paying more in taxes in order to subsidize these mostly conservative/republican states)...ask yourself why that is? Because it would seem to me that this is a case of one not "practicing what they preach" (article below)

Red States Feed at the Federal Trough, Blue States Provide the Feed

Furthermore, you argue that the person has a choice in the matter because it is her own family, and that with communism/socialistic states, the people have no choice. Well isn't this the case with any political system? I did not "choose" to be born in a capitalistic society no more than the Chinese people "choose" to be born into a communist society...so what's the difference really?

What bothers me is, as one person already put it, that people misrepresent what communism actually says, everyone refers to Stalin/Russia and North Korea as examples, but these governments are the anti-thesis to communism which abhors authoritarian rule by a select few. Just reading a bit about it (even a simple check on wikipedia) and this will become apparent. Unfortunately this American "red scare" tactic has been used in the U.S. to further some people's own political interests, thus we get things like the which hunts of McCarthyism...and even today, all this fear-mongering over "socialism"...it's all mostly based on hyperbole, fear-mongering and ignorance.

Communism/socialism has many variants. The modern western international liberal welfare communism is terrible, because it reduces everyone to the lowest standard, it champions welfare and government handout, without requiring society to put into the system. It just leads to a crime ridden 3rd worldism.

But, hardline state communism/socialism, I do like. A true collective, where everyone puts into the system, and everyone reaps it's benefits, and is driven to personal and national greatness. Stalin, N.Korea, are some examples. While no system is perfect in how it's actually run, these most show the idealism of positive communism, which is opposite of liberal welfare communism.

Originally posted by meeneecat

Originally posted by OptimusSubprime
The fact that within your estate all is shared by all is great. The distinction is that you have chosen to be that way. It was your free and sovereign choice to make and no one forced you to share.

Yes because caring for other member of society, as opposed to letting them rot and die, is just so horrible.

Here's where your logic fails, all first world democratic nations are a hybrid of socialistic principles and capitalism. None of the industrialized democratic countries would function without taxes, and there is an economic reason why communities and nations pool their resources in order to provide things like roads, police force, firemen, medical research, hospitals, military, etc. Because it is cheaper than if individuals had to go out and do these things themselves. Also this idea that is pushed by conservatives that they do not want to "share" or "give their money to others" is incredibly hypocritical considering that in the U.S. the red states are the ones who take in more federal money than the blue states, (with the blue states paying more in taxes in order to subsidize these mostly conservative/republican states)...ask yourself why that is? Because it would seem to me that this is a case of one not "practicing what they preach" (article below)

Red States Feed at the Federal Trough, Blue States Provide the Feed

Furthermore, you argue that the person has a choice in the matter because it is her own family, and that with communism/socialistic states, the people have no choice. Well isn't this the case with any political system? I did not "choose" to be born in a capitalistic society no more than the Chinese people "choose" to be born into a communist society...so what's the difference really?

What bothers me is, as one person already put it, that people misrepresent what communism actually says, everyone refers to Stalin/Russia and North Korea as examples, but these governments are the anti-thesis to communism which abhors authoritarian rule by a select few. Just reading a bit about it (even a simple check on wikipedia) and this will become apparent. Unfortunately this American "red scare" tactic has been used in the U.S. to further some people's own political interests, thus we get things like the which hunts of McCarthyism...and even today, all this fear-mongering over "socialism"...it's all mostly based on hyperbole, fear-mongering and ignorance.

I'm not saying that we shouldn't care for other members of our society. That's what private charity is for. I feel that I should decide what to do with my money. It should be my decision on what causes and charities to donate to, and it is, but I have much less money to do it with because the government STEALS a significant portion of my money every time I make any. You want to talk about First World Democratic Nations, but that doesn't include America because we are not a Democracy, we are a Republic, so it is you who has the flawed logic. I challenge you to find the word Democracy one time in any of our founding documents. Let me save you some time... you won't find it. Roads, sewers, etc, etc, can and should all be handled by the state governments. There should be no National Parks, they should be state parks.

You bring up blue and red states, but when doing so you make the common mistake of thinking that Conservative and Republican are synonymous, which they are not. The reason that the blue states pay more in taxes is because of their progressive and overbearing tax system. You will also notice that blue states almost always have a much larger amount of debt and deficit than red states, especially in non right to work states where the tax payer is forced to subsidize insolvent state employee union pension funds.

I am not talking about N. Korea or China. I'm not talking about the "red scare". I'm talking about communism as an economic system . That's it. In theory communism sounds fine, but in reality communism is always partnered with tyrannical, authoritative dictators.