Communism and Capitalism Strange Bedfellows Essay

What is it about communism that makes many people scurry and cringe? In America, the mere word might as well be banned from the dictionary. The only time it is used is when talking about new aggressive movements by totalitarian communist countries. American’s tolerance level for communism is zero to none. Is communism so horrific that the thought of some forms being successful is out of the question? In society today, capitalism is the leading economic system. When compared to other systems, few meet its standards of living. Capitalists take this fact and hold it at the heart. They become close-minded to all other forms of government—especially communism. Today, communism is most often associated with totalitarian governments. However,†¦show more content†¦Many capitalists are convinced that capitalism is the only efficient system. But contrary to their belief, there are alternate utopian enterprises that run efficiently in smaller scale nations. Proponents of capitalism claim that it is the most effective economic system and should be spread across the globe and set up in nations stricken by communism and other totalitarian governments. Some reason that capitalism has the potential to reduce world poverty. Abbas J. Ali, Professor of Management and Director, School of International Management, Eberly College of Business, at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, believes that capitalist business executives, â€Å"driven by pragmatism and humility and free of nationalistic or parochial prejudice, continuously search to upgrade market mechanisms to incorporate the ever-changing needs of a world’s population, be they rich or poor† (208). In other words, executives are out to serve customers and are always looking for new ways to efficiently do this. In turn, they contribute to the task of solving world poverty. Jon Mueller, professor of political science at Ohio State University, states that humans are flawed and if a government wishes to be successful, it must learn to cooperate with man’s imperfections (45); he believes capitalism does this well. Mueller points out that capitalism does not â€Å"profess† to make all