Nice idea, but....

Interesting story about Israel's original and founding kibbutz finally giving up its communist ideals and opening itself up to capitalism. It always seemed to me that communism was based on a fine and worthy but ultimately flawed premise - that, given the opportunity, people would work hard for the common good. And the fact is that it just doesn't work that way. People are basically selfish - they will work hard if they can see there is something in it for them, but otherwise they will just bumble along, doing enough to keep themselves out of trouble, but no more. Socialism, which is just a watered-down version of the same idea, suffers from the same weakness. This is what Margaret Thatcher realised - if you want a strong economy, you've got to give the fat cats their head, even though that may bring with it less than pleasant consequences.