Genuinely curious - why isn't communism the solution? And in your opinion, what are some better solutions? I haven't studied much about political/economic ideologies and at this point don't even know where to start. I do agree with some of what you are saying, but I don't understand why communism wouldn't be be a step in the right direction.
In a large centralized system, those in power are selected from an increasingly large pool of people... Two main characteristics which allow people to gain power include greed and the need for control; these two characteristics tend to override all other characteristics as the pool of candidates increases because the level of competition and desperation increases. Near the center of power, the personal compromises that have to be made to be in such position become significant to the point of 'not being worth it' (for most reasonable people) so those who keep going must have a particularly strong thirst for power and control.
It's difficult to both maintain power and also to do good things; those who try to do good will often sacrifice some of their power to do it; the attempt to do good carries political risks which may be seized upon by one's political opponents who aren't inclined to take such risks.
"The Road to Serfdom" by FA Hayek[0] is a good start. There's also a Wikipedia page outlining the general criticisms of communism[1]. You can also simply look into the recent history of communist countries.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Road_to_Serfdom [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Marxism