[popandopulus]

Okay. Communism is the natural consequence, of successive generations of Socialism. Which is why it's never existed on this planet. Not in Russia. Not in China. Nowhere. The term is thrown around irresponsibly and dishonestly, with absolutely no applicability. Usually by Right Wingers, in response to suggestions of anything that detours, however remotely, from Capitalism. A knee jerk reaction. It's not like a military coup, where the government alone is toppled, but where the prior economic format remains in place. Production is fundamentally and comprehensively overhauled, so as to no longer operate with profit (capital) as the objective. The idea is to account for human need. Not to foster competition, with it's inevitable minority advantage.

As for the actual mode of production, the productive potential of Capitalism is retained, on account of it's awesome potential to generate. Only the ideology is replaced. Hence why it cannot happen overnight, and the requirement for generational transmission. This interim period is Socialism, or crude Communism.

It can't work on anything less than a global level. Excepting Isolationism, a Communist state in a Capitalist world, would eventually be forced to accede to the demands of international Capitalism, with which it is incompatible. Thus, it is undermined, as Russia found out, post-1917. Socialism was as far as it got there. And only there.

Don't waste your time, hoping to crucify me over this post. I have no intention whatsoever of debating this here.