9 of 30

Write now Article Tools

Page 3 of 3

with Havana's inhabitants was very informative. In their meanderings around Havana, they found the primary ingredient for business success: population of remarkably resourceful, well educated people eager to make and spend money. They said they found an illegal underground economy driven by U.S. dollars in which a state medical doctor sold hams on the side, state truckers siphoned fuel to sell and children used their parents' Communist Party connections to buy U.S. electronics and music.

Fidel Castro told Robert G. McGrude, Free Press Executive Editor he was not married to power. "To me, power is not money. I hate individualism and selfishness and I do not own a single property". Forbes magazine about this time reported that Castro was worth $1.5 billion dollars (a closet capitalist perhaps?).

Marx saw history as a never-ending class struggle with little or no understanding or foresight regarding capitalism. He did not anticipate the abuse of the system.

There are always persons in power who refuse to relinquish that power and see it as an opportunity to skim off the top and increase personal wealth. This happens in all governmental structures. No matter how much trouble the U.S. economy is in, our Congress never fails to give themselves a raise while cautioning us to tighten our belts. Nevertheless, the abuses we have seen among communists leave the "commoners" stripped bare.

The human mind is an amazing thing, and even in Hitler's Germany there were people who were innovative and creative with escape plans, with helping those who were at risk, and who hid precious family treasures where only they could find them later including family land holdings. The real problem with Marxist theory is "the state never dies off".

Stifling personal achievement and innovation has been attempted by many governments, but those who are persons of initiative find a way to prosper. Communism promises improvements that it cannot provide. All men are not the same. There will always be those few who have a desire to be taken care of by the state, but it is not the majority.

Freedom and opportunity are heady aphrodisiacs. We crave them and always will. People try to cross the ocean on rafts to find them. A desire for freedom is deeply seated in the heart of man.

Karl Marx would surely turn over in his grave were he to know of the salaries that professional athletes, entertainers, and corporate CEOs are being paid, especially in America. He would be apalled by the dollars to be had in the techno industry and on e-bay. Had he been alive today, I wonder if his manifestos would be as readily accepted. With blogging and editorializing available to anyone with a computer, public opinion might quickly dispel the theory before it ever got a foothold.

Learn more about this author, Linda Burleson.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.

• << previous page
• 1
• 2
• 3

Add your voice

Know something about The problems with Communism?
We want to hear your view. Write now!