Said “communist” countries would typically be better referred to as “state capitalists”.
Why? Definitionally, a capitalist system is one in which the profits of a company go to the private owner of said company to be distributed or kept as he/she/they seem fit. Definitionally, a socialist system is one in which the profits of a company go to the ones actually doing the work.
In “communist” China or “communist” Soviet Russia or other corrupt authoritarian “communist” states, where do the profits go? To the workers? No, it goes to the government, with the asinine presumption that the government “is the people” and that the government would hand it out. But that doesn’t happen. So by definition, this system is not socialist, it’s simply capitalist where the capitalist in question happens to be the government. Hence: state capitalism.
Said “communist” countries would typically be better referred to as “state capitalists”.
Why? Definitionally, a capitalist system is one in which the profits of a company go to the private owner of said company to be distributed or kept as he/she/they seem fit. Definitionally, a socialist system is one in which the profits of a company go to the ones actually doing the work.
In “communist” China or “communist” Soviet Russia or other corrupt authoritarian “communist” states, where do the profits go? To the workers? No, it goes to the government, with the asinine presumption that the government “is the people” and that the government would hand it out. But that doesn’t happen. So by definition, this system is not socialist, it’s simply capitalist where the capitalist in question happens to be the government. Hence: state capitalism.