Well , there ' s a big difference between a community of e . g . 500 and a community of e . g . 50 million . One works , the other doesn ' t . People are naturally unable to feel empathy for millions of people that they have never met before . But they are very capable of creating a small community based on the ideas of equality and sharing . The problem with communism isn ' t the idea , but the size . Communism doesn ' t work for a nation , it works for you guessed it a commune . In my view , communism failed because all of the worker ' s communes of e . g . China were expected to play nice and not useabuse each other . That ' s the part that disregards human nature . The problem with the free market is not the free flow of goods and services . The problem is that you are left on your own against big organizations that have no problems with abusing you for their own gain . The logical sollution is not a planned economy , but an economy where you always have a group of people to back you up and support you against abuse and fraud . The idea of a commune is brilliant . The idea that a commune should be caring and kind to outsiders is stupid and nave .