Sure, there were past abuses under the communist system, but there have been abuses under capitalism as well. Why is the communist ideal inherently inferior?
The communism ideal is inherently inferior because communism relies on altruism and the nebulous concept of ‘social good’ to supply human wants and needs. The communist ideal was that everyone pitches in for the ‘social good’, but the trouble is that workers are effectively ‘working blind’ – they can’t tell whether or not what they are asked to is really helping society or not. They have to take it on faith that the central government is benevolent and knows what its doing. There are no signalling mechanisms to tell them what’s working and what isn’t. Under capitalism things like profit, prices, supply and demand serve to let businesses know whether or not they are producing a good or service that people want. The economic term is ‘market signals’. For instance if a business makes a profit this is a signal that the business is doing something right. Market signals are precise; terms like ‘social good’ are vague. In addition, the reliance on altruism is not in keeping with human nature.
