My rubric is irrelevant--I promised I wouldn't try to argue against whatever countries got named. I'm just curious what people consider a successful communist country.
Norway's and Alaska’s use of oil wealth to subsidize their population via state ownership of that wealth is very communist in nature.
Ancient Rome’s huge grain dole similarly was quite communist in nature: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cura_annonae
America’s freeing its slave population is similarly redistribution of the means of production to the general population. Which seems strange to modern ears, but the communist manifesto 1848 predates the US civil war 1861–1865.
But if you're saying the US is a successful communist country... well, I promised I wouldn't argue.
Socialism without capitalism is communism--the state owns everything.
Capitalism without socialism is anarchy: if you don't socialize a legal system, law enforcement, and national defense, then you don't have a country.
Anarchism is a complex area that can be capitalist, socialist, individualist, collectivist, primitivist, techno..logist? Basically, like communism, anarchism doesn't have just one flavor.
Fair, to be clear I wouldn’t actually call the US a communist country either. I would say it’s more communist than modern day China, granted that’s a low bar.
What’s IMO worth considering is just how much more communist it is today than in 1776. 22 million Americans work directly for the government (fed, state, local, post office etc), that rises significantly when you include research grants, government contractors, farm subsidies, etc. K-12 education, Qualified immunity (1967), banking laws, etc the government is both getting a stranglehold on the economy and continues extending its reach.
We are closer to nominally capitalist than I think anyone wants to admit and in ways both parties quietly agree with. That isn’t to say we need “smaller government” just understanding of what’s happening.
Communism however is when the government does everything. Thus there’s a threshold where more government control is more Communist.
40% of US corn is turned into ethanol not because the free market thinks it’s a good idea but because the government does. That’s Communism in action inside the US, it’s inefficient central planning that fits right into the kind of stupid economic decisions you’d see in the USSR. https://afdc.energy.gov/data/widgets/10339
China is a major global power. I think you'd have to accept that China is successful, even if that success doesn't reach every person. And I think it's fair to point at China and ask just how communist it really is. (Then again, I think it's fair to point at the US and ask how idealistically capitalist they are.)
Cuba has some of the highest literacy rates in the world, they have a developed medical care system with lower infant mortality, high vaccination rates, and they have developed their own effective vaccines for things like covid. They've eliminated measles. They enjoy a longer life expectancy than US citizens. And they've achieved those successes with an embargo that has made it difficult for Cuba to trade globally.
This is why I was probing for rubrics, because I think one can definitely find success in communist governments, and you'll also find corruption. And you'll find crime and war. And there's no clear story of "across all axes they are successful".
Would I rather live in any of these? It's complicated! I think there are very few countries right now that are primarily focused on the welfare of their people.
Vietnam and China still have one-party states but have transitioned to market economies. The fact that there are Chinese billionaires implies that they are no longer communist.
Cuba is still a traditional communist country--mostly because of sanctions. But they would love to become a market economy.
North Korea is the other one with both a one-party state and autarkic control over the economy.
Would I want to live in any of these countries? Absolutely not. I would rather be a median American than a median Chinese or Vietnamese.
But I could be wrong. Maybe there will be a reversion.
Without making any value judgment on the government itself. I think it’s healthy for the planet to have people grow up in as many kinds of environments as possible. You know, as long as it’s not a full on totalitarian regime like North Korea or a place where women are treated like objects like anywhere ran under sharia law.