Quote:
Originally Posted by flip
Keep in mind that I am defending communism only insofar as that a) it does not have to be violent or an epic failure and b) just because all of the preexisting examples of it have sucked doesn't mean we can't continue to try and examine its feasibility.
I totally empathize with your hatred of it and understand that no existing (or previous) incarnations have been good.
Think of it this way. Hate the people that instituted it, not the institution itself, the people that put it in place/ran the governments that practised it are at fault here not the theory itself.
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a) yes it does. without market (real) prices, economic calculation is not possible, and if by an epic failure you mean poverty and economic collapse, then yes it does.
b) yes, by all means, do continue and try and examine, but the way I see it, the problem is that communism continues, tries and examines people who do not want any part of that.
You know, this notion that "the theory is good, its the practice that has failed" is what was driving me crazy for years. I've heard it from my canadian, american and australian teachers, friends, colleagues, you name it.
Of course not one of them ever lived under communism and of course not one of them bothered to read works of L. von Mises and F.A. von Hayek (for example) that clearly demonstrate that communism (or socialism, as an economic system) cannot work and will not ever work, due to several reasons (problems with economic calculation, problems of knowledge, etc. etc.)
Then I stopped being bothered by it, and decided not to let myself to be dragged into any debates about communism. Until now
