Communism: how harmful can it be? In my class everyone liked Mr. Debenedetto, the social sciences teacher. He barely gave any homework and the class was fun. Who wouldn't like it? This was one of the few lessons where I listened carefully. I was interested in the topic we were studying at the time: communism. We were discussing how America had always been against communism, whether it was the Vietnam War or the Cold War. At that time I did not know the true meaning of communism. Textbook definitions were always long-winded and confusing. What does “a theory or system of social organization based on ownership of all property in common, beneficial ownership of which is vested in the community as a whole or in the state” mean (dictionary.reference.com/browse/communism)? Also, I remember a conversation with my father. I asked him: “Why is communism so bad?” He responded by saying, “Don't be stupid. Who told you? If communism is so bad, why is China so successful today? Did you know that China lends money to America?” Even today I continue to think about his comment. Who started the idea of ​​communism? What is a communist society like? Why does America think this is so bad? Through research, I hope to answer these questions and others that may arise. My history teacher, Ms. Shuman, while discussing communism, said that China is not meant to be another type of government: “A country with so many people may not be a democracy; the population will not be controlled. China is fit to be communist." Of course, before I try to find out if communism is bad, I need to find out what communism is. To find general information about communism, I surfed the Internet and found a website about political ideas. A pure communist society would involve everyone sharing everything equally and everyone providing a service to others (www.allaboutphilosophy.org/communism.htm). From this a new question arose: if countries are trying to be communist, then why is it so bad? ?Looking for general information on the history of communism, I went to the local library. The librarian searched the database and found only two books. One of which, Communism by Nigel Ritchie, I thought would be an easy read as it was a picture book. However my intuition was wrong. The book gave me a lot of information about the history of communism, but there were so many political words that I had to look up, like socialism and capitalism.