Quote:
Originally posted by Ustwo
Communists have killed more of their own people then any other form of government.
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and another thing...
i'm anything but a fan of communism as it has been practiced, but you've got to acknowledge some relative scale and perspective in that absolutist argument.
there's no way to back this up with any statistics (not that statistics in this type of argument are accurate or indicative of anything), but i expect that the roman empire, with a smaller overall population and a much longer term of existence, killed far more of its own citizens than either communist china or the soviet union, strictly by proportion. that would be because the latifundia agriconomy was slave based and political expansion of both the republic and later empire was conquest based. Same applies to the expansion of the Dar-al-Islam.
if you were to consider both the genocide of the native american population from the time of columbian contact and also factor in the overwhelming casulaties of the african slave trade, i think you would be looking at some equally harsh numbers - in relative perspective - to what you put out for those communist regimes.
those regimes also command/ed larger populations and geographical expanses than the other forms of government included, which should also be given at least passing acknowledgement in this discussion. also that those nations became communist originally to balance their economic strata at least a little bit better than they were under their previous totalitarian governments.
Communism (as a philosophy) is actually necessary for populations that have exceded their boundaries and available natural resources, if the citizenry at large is to enjoy any quality of life what so ever. at the most purile level of consideration, theorists posit that Communism is the only recourse available to populations that have allowed unchecked capitalization of resources without economic balance in the market and sustainable replacement growth.
one should note that even communist nations compete in the world market, which is capitalistic by virtue of entropy. capitalist nations should rightfully compete with communist nations, and one would expect that they would be more successful. this makes the trade imbalance with china and the united states particularly disturbing.