LogFAQs > #956394688

It's worth asking: what is meant by "successful" and what is meant by "communist"?

For example, with the latter, if we're going by a strict definition of the proletariat(i.e. workers) "owning the means of production", then the answer is "what communist states?" Probably Marx would have no end of complaints about the states that, today, identify themselves as "communist", but, then, he was nothing if not a fusspot. But he commended the Paris Commune for being so dedicated to democracy, even as he criticized it for not taking decisive action against the French Republic. Typically, modern communist countries don't have many meaningful elections.

As for "successful": are we talking in terms of economic growth, or in terms of quality of life?
The former case points directly to the old Soviet Union and the PRC, which achieved relatively rapid industrialization and explosive GDP growth(at least, for a time). If the latter, well...Cuba, generally speaking, has a way higher quality-of-life than basically any country with a similar GDP: Cubans tend to be healthier, live longer, etc. etc. than similarly developed countries.

On the subject of Cuba: some info about the embargo:
-It applies not just to Cuba, but any ship that docks at a Cuban port. Any ship found to have docked in Cuba may not dock in a US port for six months and may be subject to US fines. And the USN regards the Caribbean as Mare Nostrum. Basically, it makes doing any kind of business in Cuba at all a total pain.

-Under the legal terms of the embargo, the only way for it to end is for Cuba to make full restitution to everyone(or their heirs) whose property was seized by the communist government. Doing so would result in mass privatisation of state assets, impoverish the country, and partially restore the economic status quo that existed under Fulgencio Battista. Any company found to have trafficked with the owners of these "stolen" assets may be subject to litigation by its "legitimate" owners and may be excluded from doing business in the United States.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_embargo_against_Cuba

And, as for free trade: it effectively strangles most industrialization schemes in their cribs. Like, South Korea, China, Japan, Taiwan, Finland, and Singapore all used extensive state investment, tariffs, and blatant piracy to develop their industrial bases(just like Western Europe and the US, in fact). Firms in relatively undeveloped countries simply can't make, say...cars or steel or cell phones as well or efficiently as firms from developed nations, and firms. Hell, the US and most other industrialized nations still have tariff barriers and/or heavily subsidize certain sectors(agriculture, for instance.)

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