Many countries have previously invested or are still investing in a Communist government and economy. Communism is defined as “A theoretical economic system characterized by the collective ownership of property and by the organization of labor for the common advantage of all members.” If a country decides to go on the path of Communism, it is a dark and dank road that can lead to turmoil, famine, and poverty. Human nature causes those in control to become power hungry, which is destructive to the country’s society. It is easy to fall into the trap of thinking that your country will be different, but that is often only the first mistake on a downward spiral of poor decisions made by the leaders of the country as well as those inhabiting it. Many often ask the question, “Well why didn’t the people just overthrow the government?”, but what they don’t realize is that when an entire country has been oppressed in that manner, it’s nearly impossible to recover without help from a good leader in your governmental system or outside forces. Capitalism, on the other hand, is much more liberal, although it is far from perfect as well. It is defined as “An economic system based on a free market, open competition, profit motive and private ownership of the means of production”.
First, Communism squashes any form of religious freedom, whereas Capitalism allows any religion to be practiced freely. The state is not separate from the church; therefore, most Communist countries have a majority of Buddhist or Atheist people. This can lead to the downfall of any country, being that it rids them of any moral ethics or sense of right and wrong and it completely and utterly depletes any fairness the country may still pertain as well as dismantles the justice system. This lack of standard and belief is never helpful to anything or anyone, particularly an entire country.
Second, although Communism is supposedly meant to ‘better the economy’, it actually weakens it. If everyone and every business make the same profit, they have no motivation or competition whatsoever. Due to the ways of human nature, this leads to low quality goods, laziness, and poor work ethics. People see that there is no reason to produce quality work, and so they do not. Capitalism encourages people to do well and compete against other businesses to be the top seller of their products.
Also, Communism can be very depressing to the people of the country. It is often presented as “Socialism” or a “Republic of the People”, but it is really a cruel and harsh dictatorship. Rulers believe in using violence and invoking their military forces in order to squash revolts or simply to discipline even minor offences against the government. There is no freedom of speech, press or right to assemble. It takes away any free thinking and all anti-government thoughts must be kept to oneself or they may even lose their life for it. For instance, in 1989 students gathered in Tiananmen Square to protest and the government sent in tanks to crush their spirits-and many of their bodies. An estimated 3,000 were killed.
So even though Communism may look good in theory, when presented as a perfect and equal society, all aspects of it have led to the destruction of countries that have experienced it, or at least the unhappiness of the people, such as in China’s case. The country’s economy will plummet, all religion will be destroyed, and the people will become depressed.