Explain the economic and moral failures of the communist experiment. (Could the USSR match the West in quality and availability of consumer goods?). World History

Despite early success, communist economies by the late 1970s showed no signs of catching up to the more advanced capitalist countries. The highly regimented and state controlled Soviet economy was largely stagnant; its citizens had to stand in long lines for consumer goods and complained endlessly about their poor quality and declining availability. The eroding away of communist claims of moral superiority over capitalism was undermined by Stalin's purges, Mao's Cultural Revolution in which millions died of starvation, and Cambodia's attempt at genocide. This erosion occurred as global political culture more widely embraced democracy and human rights as the universal legacy of humankind. After all the boasting, Communism was increasingly being seen as the road to nowhere.