TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Many Florida leaders have been outspoken against communist ideas in the state in recent years, with several working on legislation to combat it.
Republican lawmakers in both the state House and Senate have crafted legislation that would teach about the history of communism in Florida schools from grades as young as Kindergarten.
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According to the bills, these classes would cover the failures of groups like the USSR, the Communist Party of Cuba, and the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution in China.
Last year, state Sen. Rick Scott issued a travel advisory for communists in the state, and the Florida Department of Education suspended scholarships for schools accused of having ties to China’s Communist Party.
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Gov. Ron DeSantis has repeatedly spoken out against communism, vowing more education on the subject in schools and signing off on a state bill in 2022 that established Nov. 7 as “Victims of Communism Day” in Florida.
But despite all of the pushback, could communism ever actually succeed?
To figure that out, it’s important to know how supply and demand work.
UNDERSTANDING SUPPLY AND DEMAND
The graph below shows the relationship between supply and demand. Scroll down to continue reading.
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Supply | This line is the amount of a good/service that will be produced at a given price. |
| Demand | This line is the amount of a good/service that customers will buy at a given price. |
| Price | This is the y-axis — the price that can be placed on a good/service |
| Quantity | This is the x-axis — the amount that can be made/purchased of a good/service |
Using the graph: if Taylor Swift tickets cost $20, not enough customers will buy them, and so the company will have to reduce prices.
On the flip side, if tickets are $8, then there won’t be enough to go around, leading to shortages.
The perfect price (according to the graph) is $14 — the point where supply and demand meet.
By figuring out the best price and comparing them to costs, firms can determine the best way to produce these goods and services.
WHAT DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH COMMUNISM?
A centrally planned economy — those like communism and socialism in which the government has sole control over resources — doesn’t allow for people to make their own economic decisions.
This is done to push down on inequity within a given society, but it has major drawbacks. There is no way for private citizens to trade with one another, and consequently no consumer prices.
That means a supply and demand graph would look like this:
Without prices, there is no way to determine supply and demand, which means there is no way to figure out how much of something should be produced. There’s no real way to tell exactly what should be produced, either.
In addition, many critics of centrally planned economies say that governments in these types of economies must violate people’s rights to even operate.
Without profit incentives, workers also don’t have a reason to work any harder than necessary, which results in an economy with crippled production and a lack of resources.
While there are many countries worldwide with government involvement in the economy, successful economies require markets to function.
EXAMPLES
Below are three of the communist groups noted in recent Florida education bills, which would require instruction on the history of communism in Florida’s schools.
- CHINA: The Chinese Communist Party took control through a bloody civil war in 1949, though after decades of lagging production, the country began implementing market reforms to allow for some private enterprise, such as allowing workers to keep any profits above state-mandated quotas. While it just graduated from being a developing country last year, China still meanders behind many other countries in terms of GDP per capita.
- CUBA: Dictator Fidel Castro declared Cuba a socialist state under communist rule in 1961. Businesses were nationalized and land ownership was heavily limited. As a result, the country suffered from major shortages in housing, food and other consumer goods. The government eventually implemented market reforms in the 1990s to allow citizens to do some private business, though Cuba announced last year that it planned to hike prices and impose even more restrictions on the private sector.
- RUSSIA: After a coup by Marxist leader Vladimir Lenin in 1917, Russia would go on to form the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. As resources became collectivized and food shortages mounted, the country experienced a famine in the 1930s that killed millions. The country also implemented forced labor camps, and mass starvation continued for decades until the 1990s, which is when the USSR was abolished and Russia’s leaders began reducing regulations and allowing for private markets. However, much of the economy is still owned by the state, and its economy is heavily reliant on exports.
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