h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Um.. Communism is not authoritarian... or not necessarily so. Perhaps you mean Socialism?

Under communism, all property is owned by the state. The government is the state. Its use and dispensation is directed by the government. I honestly don't understand what could be more authoritarian than that... even serfs had private belongings under feudalism.

Under communism all property belongs to the people... in Socilism the people are "represented" by the state.

I think you've got those two backwards. But even still, you're arguing semantics. If it's owned by the "people" as a collective, then it has to be administered by someone... that someone is the government. if the property is owned by "people" as individuals, then it is not communism.

Hmm... Why must it be administered?

All arguments are semantic ones.

It isn't terribly important... but Communism is not a form of government per se rather a philosophic theory.... and the only implementation (TMK) of that theory we have seen is Socialism.

Courtesy of Merriam-Webster:

Socialism: a system or condition of society in which the means of production are owned and controlled by the state

Communism: a totalitarian system of government in which a single authoritarian party controls state-owned means of production

Are you *sure* communism isn't authoritarian?

Socialism and communism are two different economic theories. Marx thought of socialism as a step in the progression towards communism. Socialism would involve collective property and ownership, but it would be distributed unequally. Communism was to then evolve, which would distribute all property equally. Communism, not socialism, is what we have seen in the USSR and China, among others.

Courtesy of Merriam-Webster:

Socialism: a system or condition of society in which the means of production are owned and controlled by the state

Communism: a totalitarian system of government in which a single authoritarian party controls state-owned means of production

Are you *sure* communism isn't authoritarian?

Socialism and communism are two different economic theories. Marx thought of socialism as a step in the progression towards communism. Socialism would involve collective property and ownership, but it would be distributed unequally. Communism was to then evolve, which would distribute all property equally. Communism, not socialism, is what we have seen in the USSR and China, among others.

Sorry for the double-post, but that proxy error was quite the pain in the rectal opening.

Well it goes against everything they teach in Political Science curriculum here... but whatever... basically they taught that communism was a state of everybody working together for common good... a state that hasn't ever happened... and that socialism was teh government that USSR and China had...