[ZenGum]

I think you're shifting from communism to socialism to easily. Here are some terms and systems as I understand them.

Marxism: means of production of each workplace controlled by the workers in that workplace - kind of cooperative capitalism. Almost unknown in the world today outside of a kibbutz.

Lenin/stalinist communism: means of production controlled by central government - kind of state-owned capitalism. Vestiges of this remain in china, Vietnam, and a lot in North Korea.

Socialism - means of production generally privately owned, but subject to extra taxation to fund social welfare programs - most significantly, the welfare of all people is considered to be (at least partly) a state/collective responsibility. Found in varying degrees in many countries today.

Free-market capitalism - means of production privately owned, state takes no responsibility for the welfare of individuals (private charity is often involved).

Corporate socialism - means of production privately controlled, corporations take responsibility for the welfare of their workers (Japanese system, see also benevolent capitalists like Owen, Cadbury, Ford).

All have their strengths and weaknesses. All systems will have cheats and crooks. We're human. Communism will have its slackers and bullies, capitalism will have it's Madoffs and Leheman Bros.

I think it is pretty clear that you get more economic growth with private ownership of means of production, even when you allow for the regular booms and crashes of a market system.

We might asks ourselves, though, how much more economic growth do we need? Adam Smith's goal of growth and wealth made excellent sense 200 years ago, but it might be argued that - for modern OECD nations - human well-being is better advanced by things other than economic growth.