Capitalism vs Communism

[Meirionnydd]

Re: Capitalism bv Communism

Then why are you so against capitalism??

Because Capitalism, in my opinion, is the polar opposite of what I said earlier. It advocates the view that humans are greedy and selfish by nature, and therefore the only thing that motivates our actions is the 'incentive'.

 

[Minor Axis]

Re: Capitalism bv Communism

That's hard to say. Strangely enough, Karl Marx made an interesting point on this issue, saying that our social environment determines human consciousness. So for example, if people grow up in a society dominated by greed and the pursuit of wealth, that's what they'll come to expect and strive for.

I would not argue that. However my statement is based on what I've witnessed and in the case of at least the U.S.A. it is a true statement in many cases (but I won't say all cases). It might be my imagination, but it seems in the greed department, greedyness has magnified in the last 30 years, along with the rise of Ronald Regan's conservatism/corporatism. The theme of most conservatives in this forum is "it's my money" and "why should I have to pay for someone else?", very squarely "self" over "community".

Because Capitalism, in my opinion, is the polar opposite of what I said earlier. It advocates the view that humans are greedy and selfish by nature, and therefore the only thing that motivates our actions is the 'incentive'.

However it can give people great incentive to innovate, but the key is use all that energy to primarily make good things happen, not primarily fill your pockets with money. The latter is why the U.S. got into so much trouble. A significant percentage of our corporate leadership were/are working very hard in the pursuit of self enrichment to the point of corruption.

 

[Accountable]

Re: Capitalism bv Communism

Because Capitalism, in my opinion, is the polar opposite of what I said earlier. It advocates the view that humans are greedy and selfish by nature, and therefore the only thing that motivates our actions is the 'incentive'.

Capitalism is run by humans. humans are not greedy and selfish like most people want to believe. Case solved. No worries. Trust humanity.

 

[Accountable]

Re: Capitalism bv Communism

However it can give people great incentive to innovate, but the key is use all that energy to primarily make good things happen, not primarily fill your pockets with money. The latter is why the U.S. got into so much trouble. A significant percentage of our corporate leadership were/are working very hard in the pursuit of self enrichment to the point of corruption.

IMO, it's not the profit or the capitalism per se, but the separation of the profiteer from the people he's profiting off of that large corporations create that is the major problem. This "too big to fail" bullshit. If corporations were kept small(er), if congressmen were not allowed to live permanently in Washington, if we had term limits to discourage professional politicians, then the national culture of neighborliness and generosity would take a front seat again.

 

[Zorak]

Re: Capitalism bv Communism

Capitalism doesn't provide clean drinking water for the 1.2 billion people who don't have it, nor does provide food for the 841 million people currently starving in the world. Over half of Africa lives on $1 per day and across the third-world, children and adults alike are working in sweatshop factories under horrible conditions, work hours and pay.

In Western societies those problems are less acute and in some cases non-existent. Arguably because of the social safety net the State provides to it's citizens (Welfare isn't exactly a Capitalist concept), and the fact that we exploit the rest of the world to make most of our goods.

I already covered my views on the capitlism adaptation in terms of socialist principals. it was one of my arguements for the benefits of capitilism.

Third world countries are reliant on western exploitation also remember, should we pay them a fair wage? Well if the developed world was going to do that, they'd keep their production at a purely domestic level.
However, since the developed world will continue to cut overheads by using the developing world in production and manafacture there is a continuous stream of economical growth in the developing world.

The little tiger economies are prime examples of this.