Is the problem the tenets of communism? or is the problem the dictators and strongmen who inevitably rise to the top? or the corruption that grows from unchecked power?

Communism requires a strongman to enforce top-down.

Most people would reject communism if they had the freedom, so the freedom is one of the first things to go under communist rule.

Hard to say, but a good governance system must guard against the inevitable abuses of all in power (really at all levels)

It's primarily the lack of incentives, e.g. China in 1990 compared to 2010.

Communism's "time in the sun" was not really about its ideological merits. It was just something fed to the intellectuals to get them to buy into the Russian/Soviet planetary takeover. It made people believe they were fighting for a cause rather than someone else's petty interest.

All of the above, and they're linked together. Communism requires centralization of decision making, which creates huge bottlenecks, stunts growth, and also becomes a single point of failure that a corrupt leader can easily takeover.

The only reason communism keeps re-emerging is because it takes advantage of people's empathy, promising that it can directly address the needs of the many.

I’ve always wondered —- if communism is so inherently flawed that it will by definition go away on its own, why bother punishing or fighting it? The US embargo on Cuba seems kind of silly if communism would evaporate on its own

I literally stated the opposite of that.. it keeps re-emerging because it takes advantage of feelings. People want to fix the problems of the world, communism offers solutions that don't work but sound nice.

I see, I misunderstood you. You were saying that there is no issue inherent to the tenets of communism that would make it fail

You're referring to the govt failing to maintain itself in power, whereas OP is referring to a govt failing as a functional system for the improvement of society.

I'm no fan of communism but that's a reductive take. China of today is communist in name only, but it's still very centrally managed, and that didn't stop China from becoming a global economic superpower. One could say something similar for Japan of the early 20th century, or, to a lesser extent, South Korea in the 60s when the economy was very much centrally planned under a dictator.

I'd call that luck. Wait until a bad or stupid actor gets to power. This is the main problem with communism. It all depends on one single person and how they are.

>I'd call that luck. Wait until a bad or stupid actor gets to power.

See: their zero covid policy. Great at first, but the stuck dogmatically to it even after omicron, which led to massive deaths.

I'll grant that communism makes it easy for a single person to have all the power, but "one single person in power can ruin everything" is not exactly unique to communism, and I am unconvinced that it explains why communist nations tend to stay poor.

Happens everywhere, but the way power in communism works makes bad stuff happen many times faster. In democracy there is a long time until a bad actor can do real damage. There are policies and various mechanisms that prevent that(to a point). Even bureaucracy works to some extent.

May be you should visit Haiti and see which is better.

Haiti has many, many other problems including being severely deforested.