State-centered command economies have indeed been tried, and have indeed shown a very mixed record. Of course, only some of those have been called Communist.

State-centered command economies have indeed been tried, and have indeed shown a very mixed record. Of course, only some of those have been called Communist. The rest were called Capitalist, and are just as mixed. The 20th century's distinction between "capitalist" and "communist", "free" and "not free", doesn't seem to have actually captured genuinely relevant dimensions of variation very well.