What exactly is wrong with Communism?

Communism disincentivises hard work by rewarding everyone, regardless of the quality of their production.

Very simply put: Spiffying idea on paper, **** real world applications.

In theory, there's absolutely nothing wrong with it. It's pretty damn close to perfection actually.

Human nature however dictates that we will and have failed miserably at applying it to the real world (in most cases anyway) because leaders of communist states are human ergo they're self-interested beings who quickly acquire a taste for power and lose sight of all ideals

No it does not. Unless you can point out the Gulags in the UK France Norway Sweden ect.

Then why not have a communist economy run by the people via direct democracy?

Actually, I'm sure you're well aware of the fact that there were concentration camps in Nazi Germany, as well as ghastly extermination camps. That was a product of fascism which could not exist in communism. The capitalist West relied on it to defeat communist uprisings throughout Europe.

If communism means abolishing the class system in favour of equality, then what exactly is wrong with it? Up until now, communism has always been associated with poverty. What if, a world superpower say America for example (or China in the future) resorts to communism. If Britain joins them (and the Commonwealth countries do as well) and the EU then pretty much over half of the world will live in communism. As this spreads, poverty in Africa will be abolished, extreme wealth will be dissolved into the system and the world will potentially stop fighting over wealth and individual gain. The world will be driven by 'the system' and not the 'individual'. New countries will open themselves up to the rest of the world. Borders will be opened and everyone will live as one.

I see no reason why not, and I'd support it fully. Question is though, why isn't it actually happening at the moment? It seems simple enough...but for it to work you need everyone to be willing to participate and lets face it, there's very few people who'd be willing to renounce their power & wealth for the 'greater good' of society.

We saw brutal tyranny in every single communist country

Only if you are driven by materialism or wealth in the first place.

I'm not sure if you could describe the communist takeover of Cuba, for example, as 'brutal tyranny'. The fascist regimes imposed on Cuba by America were far more brutal than the communist one.

It isn't happening at the moment because we live in a representative democracy, rather than a direct one. We also live in a capitalist society, so the resulting in uneven distribution of wealth and power means people at the top oppress those at the bottom to maintain their class status.

I think the only solution is gradually raising awareness until a class consciousness is achieved. Then taking the wealth back via revolution.

Obviously, we're a long way from that.

Hardly fun if you are one of the 200 in prison as a political prisoner

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10517497

Communism conjours images of the soviet union in people's minds even though this is not communism. Despite many attempts it has also never been successful and large scales and always descends into Tyranny.

It's a great idea, but people are selfish.