Not_MatlockMarxistThe USA's incarceration rate is presently higher than the USSR at the height of the GULAG system - so it's nothing peculiar to Communism. Nations which utilize prison labor extensively will continue to do so no matter what sort of government they're using - hence why Russia still has prison labor complexes. .I'm not talking about incarceration rates, I'm talking about imprisoning political dissidents. Every communist nation does this. It is against the law to imprisoning someone in the US for their political opinions.
Also in the US we utilize prison labor heavily and have since time immemorial - as do many other "capitalist" nations :/ At my job I have the power to call in trustees from the jail to provide menial labor at any time (they will be paid 50 cents an hour). I refuse to do this and as such have gotten some pretty good workouts in lol.MarxistIt's hardly a "glaring" problem of a communist economic system - *all* economic systems erect a state edifice to ensure the continuity of that particular system. Try to violate a contract sometime, or sell stuff out of your trunk in a wal-mart parking lot, or produce something that has a patent on it - just to name a few. However, these sorts of laws are treated as natural courses of affairs and so their authoritarian character is ignored.Are you saying that being fined for selling something without a permit is the same as living under a dictatorship?
If not, then your comparison is pointless.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_V._Debs
http://www.americaslibrary.gov/aa/king/aa_king_jail_1.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internment_of_Japanese_Americans
If you seriously think the US has never imprisoned peaceful political dissidents you're sorely mistaken. Their's literally thousands of people who were put in prison for protesting wars, dodging drafts, and thousands more imprisoned during the civil rights movement.
hell the USA even committed genocide against native groups
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genocide_of_indigenous_peoples#United_States_colonization_and_westward_expansion
-edit-
would like to add it's a pain to find current political prisoners, due to most of them being marked as Terrorists and due to the Freedom of information act not applying to them, but a key thing here is just to think what would happen to Snowden if he came back the US? What would happen to Julian Assange?