[BeAllYouCanBe]

"But it's just a code word for pushing Marxist planks onto the platform."

Ronald Reagan quote, "Communists are people who read Marx and Engles, anti-Communists are those who understand Marx and Engles."

Marxism is alive because it operates on a basis of fairness and at a juvenile level all of us want thing to be fair and just. So those who understand the fallacy of Communism look stupid and selfish to the enlightened Marxist.

Sadly, most liberal Americans don't realize they are Marxists and act solely on the emotions. I've heard that Communism = Mommyism and there are millions of people pushing the "nanny culture" it is difficult to stand against it. You have my sympathy!

[EvilOverlord]

Communists are people who read Marx and Engles, anti-Communists are those who understand Marx and Engles

From each, according to his ability, to each according to his needs

People everywhere seem to be indoctrinated with the slogan "Communism is a great system, but it doesn't work because of human nature." I knew this to be true when I was in elementary school in Ohio. I have been told the same thing by a native Californian, and a native Chinese. It does seem to be a universally held belief. The problem is that it isn't true.

If communism and capitalism are thought about in a mathematical way, it is easy to see why communism fails and capitialism succeeds.

How to maximixe the return to an individual in a communist system? Simply show the most need and the least ability. Do this and you accrue the benefits of the system. From each, according to his ability, to each according to his needs. An economic system that rewards those that do not produce and punishes those who do by diverting the fruits of that production to the non-producers is doomed to a downward spiral of less and less production. We see this in every communist country that has existed.

The way to maximize the return of an individual in a capitalist system is simply to produce more goods and services that are desired by society at large. Capitalism rewards productivity and punishes non-producers. This leads to an upward spiral of increasing productivity in a society.

Pit a system that punishes productivity against a system that rewards productivity, and the system that rewards productivity wins every time. And, since capitalism rewards production of goods that are deemed desirable by society, it naturally works best in a free and democratic society.