Influence your thoughts and feelings

[Occhidiangela]

Cuba.

Everyone is educated, all are employed, there is almost no poverty, children have access to afterschool programs, medical care is free and open to all.  I've spent a lot of time down there recently, and as it's not very big, I've got to see it all, not just the tourist resorts.  The people in Cuba a genuinely happy for the most part.  There are of course extemists who oppose the government and are persecuted for it, but that happens in America too, hello Guatanamo Bay.

You are confusing corrupt goverment in general with communism.  Anywhere where government puts its needs ahead of its peoples will have problems similar to those in the old Soviet Union, China, et al.  Communism isn't perfect, especially with the high rate of corruption seen in communist governments.  Corruption happens in all levels of government regardless of the governing system however.  Do not blame communism for the evils of abuse of power and corruption.  It is possible to have communist government that is not corrupt and looks out more for its people that itself.

In most cases this doesn't happen.  The greed that rules a capitalistic nation, such as America, corrupts those with good intentions unless there is democratic control over who is in power.  In cases like that, you get places like Sweden.  Socialistic paridises.  The people elect the government who is bound by laws.  There are VERY high taxes, but everyone is extremely well educated, employed and cared for.

If a G8 nation embraced communism do you really think that it would suffer the same fate as an impovershed nation that does?  Do you abhor all socialist movements, or just communism?  Do you think that because someone has more money than someone else they are more deserving of care and education?

The spirit of communism is not many dominated by few, it is community - the many for the many, with goverment used as a tool to help with the distribution of resources.  That ideal may falter due to human nature, but I don't see how as an ideal it is evil.
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Ninjadruid

You appear to confuse autocratic socialism with Communism. A common mistake. If you recall Marx and his original framework, socialism is an interim stage to the Utopian ideal of the Communist state. You can't achieve communism, since in Communism, everyone has chosen to agree and the state slowsly evaporates.

Even if there are some successes in Cuba, the form of government the Communist Party runs there is at best "Communism, not quite there yet." Given Fidel's methods, he is simply another Latin American strong man running his country by force of will and his own considerable political savvy. He and his inner circly have chosen to implement some of the socialistic features that any society that would where socialism is the fundamental method.

Consider this quality standard for a country: how many people are trying to get in, and how many people are trying to get out? Apply it to Cuba. Are they free to do so if they want to? In Sweden, a fairly Socialist nation, yes. In Cuba?

Hmmmmm.

Occhi