Commies

I'm close-minded to few things but communism on a large scale is one of them. Any system that relies on people being altruistic rather than individualistic is bound to fail. Communism is the manifest of this idea that "we all want to serve the greater good." In the major Commie cases (China and Russia), corruption, greed, and a lack of responsibility have of course come up. Fear, then, must be used to control people....

Ok so that doesn't sound like much fun at all. A successful economic and political system is one that recognizes that people inherently only care about themselves. This is in keeping with the Christian view that humans are weak, self-centered, prideful, etc. Capitalism is the best system so far as it provides incentives for this. It is politics based on incentive ahead of you rather than the lash behind you.

What if I want to be the next Mao?
Communism on a small scale is possible and would probably be great. It could promote the feeling of tackling things as a team, inclusiveness, and a myriad of positive things.

Well then, how small is small? I would say small enough that each member feels a sense of personal responsibility for the outcome of the commune. China fails because being 1 in a billion, the individual feels that his work is unimportant (because, really, it is). Could you feel directly responsible with 100 people? 1000 people? I don't know. Find that number and you'll be in Marx paradise.

In short, communism falls short because it makes the false assumption that people are good. This of course, is not the current state of affairs. Capitalism prevails because it makes the correct assumption that people are greedy.