In respect to the Hutterites and similar communal organizations, it is important to remember that these are small islands in a relatively capitalist world. The cost-accounting problems of socialism really don’t apply. They can view and emulate successful capitalist arrangements of capital, and are as well guided by capitalist prices.
From the incentives side, there is no reason to believe religious and social incentives, especially involving the family, cannot trump economic ones.
I don’t see how such would work in a large-scale environment, or without a moderately capitalist surrounding environment.
Right. All of the successful communist societies seem to have been small religiously motivated communities. The OP asked for a list of failed communist experiments. But I think it’s also instructive to look at the list of successes and see just what it takes to make a communist community work. I don’t imagine many proponents of communism have an ascetic religious life in mind.
No they did not. These communities were impoverished and generally had low productivity. It was only when they were reformed that they generally increased production and became “thriving” communities. Generally, though, early Jewish kibbutzniks (in the 1920s and 1930s) were poor. There were acute changes in how they were run, as it became obvious that a community without profit-incentive was bound to fail (i.e. private property).
Granted. But the measure of success I’m applying for these religious communist communities is not prosperity but survival.