At the heart of Communist ideology is the idea that wealth should be distributed equally among all people. In theory, the redistribution of wealth would reduce large gaps between the rich and the poor. The Soviets used the state-run command economy to reduce the economic gap. However, this method failed to provide a stable economy and, along with huge military spending, was the major cause of the collapse of the Soviet Union. But in capitalist economies the gap between rich and poor still exists, and in some places the gap is widening. Should capitalist countries try to narrow the income gap? Why or why not? What kinds of policies do you think would work? What are some of the effects of poverty? Can you see evidence of the income gap in your community?

Communism includes a variety of schools of thought, which broadly include Marxism, anarchism (anarchist communism), and the political ideologies grouped around both. All these share the analysis that the current order of society stems from its economic system, capitalism, that in this system, there are two major social classes: the working class - who must work to survive, and who make up the majority within society-and the capitalist class - a minority who derives profit from employing the working class, through private ownership of the means of production, and that conflict between these two classes will trigger a revolution. The primary element which will enable this transformation, according to this analysis, is the social ownership of the means of production.