[QUOTE="LJS9502_basic"][QUOTE="PeterDuck"] Cuba, USSR. North Korea. There, three separate instances of countries that do not and did not rely on foreign labor to propel and SUSTAIN their economies. Cuba and North Korea have been embargoed for decades which greatly contributes to starvation and economic stagnation. The argument is that the principles of communism are not based on exploitation of those who would be willing to work for less than others. If you find those that will work for 5 cents an hour or whatever (like the Chinese mass producing products for the USA for instance) then why would you pay 15 bucks an hour to an American? that is one of the evils of rampant capitalism and that was the implied principle I was referring to.theone86
However they haven't been so good to their citizens.That's debatable. North Korea I won't defend, but they're barely communist anyways, more of a dictatorship that came to power using communist rhetoric. The USSR, many citizens had fairly decent standards of living until their economy started going downhill (and really that wasn't due to anything endemic to communism), though that is excepting the people that had their property reposessed or were jailed or killed by the regime. On that note, though, Stalin was a major departure from traditional communism and killed as many Trotskyists as he did anti-communists.
Cuba, they simply don't have many marketable resources. The citizens are poor because they live in a poor country, not because they live in a communist country. However, there are many Cubans who don't mind the standard of living, especially in comparison to the U.S., which they see as extravagant and exploitative.
I know it's debatable. I'm just making arguments and pointing to some misconceptions about communism. People assume that communism fails or failed because on its own accord without realizing that there were competing and much stronger countries with opposing ideologies. It was not a fair fight. I agree about Korea, however, it is obvious that so many countries do not like Korea because of it's forcefull collective system and militarism which is why they won't trade with it. There are plenty of other dictatorships in Africa for instance that get the US foreign aid in exchange for spheres of influence, however this "foreign aid" only ends up keeping the particular dictator in power. Korea does not get any of that, it is being starved to death, so go figure whether more North Koreans die of state-created starvation as opposed to foreign-created starvation. Yes, Stalin put plenty of taint on communism that isn't going away any time soon."The citizens are poor because they live in a poor country, not because they live in a communist country."
precisely. You nailed it
As for Cuba, well, they could be making a fortune with Tourism and Tobacco sales for instance, but they are being embargoed and travel is restricted. And the Central and South American countries are being influenced by the US through foreign aid and other means to NOT trade with Cuba, hence, no fair fight
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