Death of America Series Part 10 of 13: Communism - Sword, Famine, Pestilence
The Death of America teaching series reveals the imminent destruction of America through the prophetic lens of Scripture! If you have any questions or commen...
By: CornerFringeChannel
Read the original:
Death of America Series Part 10 of 13: Communism - Sword, Famine, Pestilence - Video
Death of America Series Part 11 of 13: Communism - Ideological Subversion
The Death of America teaching series reveals the imminent destruction of America through the prophetic lens of Scripture! If you have any questions or commen...
By: CornerFringeChannel
Go here to read the rest:
Death of America Series Part 11 of 13: Communism - Ideological Subversion - Video
Communism and the Church - Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen
By: Catholic TV Online
Go here to see the original:
Communism and the Church - Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen - Video
To the editor: Jeffrey Engel's Op-Ed article oversimplified the reality. ("U.S., Russia, Europe, China have different views on Berlin Wall's fall," Op-Ed, Nov. 1)
East Germans gave their government high marks for meeting immediate postwar needs. Its failure was due to the inherent failures of communist governments to meet long-term economic growth needs. The result was massive passive resistance and further economic decline.
When confronted with similar failures, both Russia and China faced massive opposition. It was not that the communist leaders in Russia lacked the courage to fire on their own people, it was that the troops failed to open fire. Similarly, in Tiananmen Square, Beijing brought in ethnic Mongolians to clear out the protesters.
Vietnam has transitioned from a failed communist economic system to a Western-style mixed economy with single-party authoritarian political rule without revolt. But as Hong Kong demonstrates, meeting economic needs without some degree of popular political participation will not succeed in the long term.
The reality is that while meeting the economic needs of the people is important, long-term stability requires popular political participation in governance.
Norm Rodewald, Moorpark
Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion
Go here to see the original:
Why communism eventually fails
The Vatican at dawn. Catholic social teaching proposes correcting the way market forces work so that they serve the public interest and the common good. Photograph: Filippo Monteforte/AFP/Getty Images
It was 25 years ago this month that communism ceased to be a threat to the west and to the free market. When sledgehammers started to dismantle the Berlin Wall in November 1989, an experiment with the command economy begun in St Petersburg more than 70 years before was in effect over, even before the Soviet Union fell apart.
The immediate cause for the collapse of communism was that Moscow could not keep pace with Washington in the arms race of the 1980s. Higher defence spending put pressure on an ossifying Soviet economy. Consumer goods were scarce. Living standards suffered.
But the problems went deeper. The Soviet Union came to grief because of a lack of trust. The economy delivered only for a small, privileged elite who had access to imported western goods. What started with the best of intentions in 1917 ended tarnished by corruption. The Soviet Union was eaten away from within.
As it turned out, the end of the cold war was not unbridled good news for the citizens of the west. For a large part of the postwar era, the Soviet Union was seen as a real threat and even in the 1980s there was little inkling that it would disappear so quickly. A powerful country with a rival ideology and a strong military acted as a restraint on the west. The fear that workers could go red meant they had to be kept happy. The proceeds of growth were shared. Welfare benefits were generous. Investment in public infrastructure was high.
There was no need to be so generous once the Soviet Union was no more. What was known as neoliberal economics was born in the 1970s, but it was not until the 1990s that market forces reigned supreme. The free market spread to poorer parts of the world where it had previously been off limits, expanding the global workforce. That meant cheaper goods but it also put downward pressure on wages.
Whats more, there was no longer any need to be inhibited. Those running companies could take a bigger slice of profits because there was nowhere else for workers to go. If citizens did not like reform of welfare states, they just had to lump it.
And, despite some grumbles, thats pretty much what they did until the global financial crisis of 2008. This was a blow to the prevailing free-market orthodoxy for three reasons. First, it was the crash that should never have happened. Economists had constructed models that showed markets were always rational and self-correcting. It was quite a shock to find that they werent.
Second, the financial crash made countries poorer. Deep recessions have been followed by historically weak recoveries characterised by falling real wages and cuts in benefits.
Finally, the crisis and its aftermath have revealed the dark side of the post-cold war model. Instead of trickle down, there has been trickle up. Instead of the triumph of democracy, there has been the triumph of the elites.
See original here:
The cold war, Catholicism and modern capitalism