Karl Marx - Communism

The ideas and thoughts of communism came from the mind of Karl Marx. This form of government attempted to outline the problems of capitalism, and show a better way of running a country. The “ten commandments” of the communist party outlines the basic ideas of communism, and what it is all about. The idea that caught my attention was the first one. It reads “abolition of property in and confiscation of ground rents to the State” (Marx, 141). What this means in today’s language is that there shall not be any private property, and everyone has a free place to live. Some people believe that everything in communism is bad, but if you read this idea, you will realize that there are some good and bad points to this statement.

The idea that the state controls all of the housing and private property in theory is not a bad one at all. If the government owned all of the housing and everything in it, everyone would have the same exact thing. No one would be poorer or live in a smaller house than the person next to them. It would knock out all forms of competition between neighbors, and everyone would accept that they have the same goods as everyone else. Another good thing that would come from this is children that are growing up will be guaranteed that they will have the same exact life they have currently, and they will have a house and possessions in it. There would be a faith in the younger generations that they will be successful and not wind up on the streets begging for food or money. We would have everything supplied by the government, and they would take care of us. If the government let its citizens have some of their own money, no one would have to pay off mortgages to the bank for their houses, which in turn would give them more money to spend in their local markets, therefore driving the economy of the country up. The idea of no private property does not sound like a very bad idea until you try to put it into practice, which is where you run into some of the major problems.

Currently the United States prides itself on its citizens having their own freedoms. These freedoms include the right to free speech, as well as the right to have their own private property. Marx believed that the government should own all of the property and give its citizens the same exact housing and goods. One can argue that it is wrong for people to just be given possessions without doing anything to