Communism vs. Capitalism

[Sense-A]

I notice there are lots of commies in this forum. So lets battle it out. I'm a firm believer in capitalism.

In economics, laissez-faire (English pronunciation: /ˌlɛseɪˈfɛər/ ( listen), French: [lɛsefɛʁ] ( listen)) means allowing industry to be free from state intervention, especially restrictions in the form of tariffs and government monopolies.
The phrase is French and literally means "let do", but it broadly implies "let it be", or "leave it alone."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laissez-faire

Laissez-faire capitalism is capitalism in its pure form. Unleashed. However, in America, we have regulations often governed by bureaucratic agencies such as the FDA, EPA, OSHA, ESA, FIDC, IRS, ATF, that maintain a level of acceptable conditions in our health products, our food, our environment, our employment, etc.

Capitalism is an economic system in which the means of production are privately owned; supply, demand, price, distribution, and investments are determined mainly by private decisions and market forces rather than through a planned economy; and profit is distributed to owners who invest in businesses.

Okay we'll use this definition for now. I don't believe that everyone is entitled to everything. The American Constitution states that:

The United States Declaration of Independence, which was primarily drafted by Jefferson, was adopted by the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776. The text of the second section of the Declaration of Independence reads:

We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

There you go spoiled brat. You are entitled to the PURSUIT of happiness. That means you have the right to EARN what you want. Communists want entitlements and are often under the false assumption that common ownership of property means that everyone gets a free house and a free car and free luxuries.


Capitalism is incentive based. If you want to make money, there is a free market that you are allowed to participate in. It is regulated with licenses and registration processes (bureaucracy). Entering the market requires start-up capital. Start-up capital is easily available from lenders/investors/banks once the borrower has built a good reputation for honoring loans/credit. Going into business requires risk, and with high risk comes high reward. We also have the opportunity to share ownership in our companies via the corporate system in which one can easily buy a share ownership in a corporation online for $5 plus the share price of the stock. Pretty cool system.


Communism. You have no private property. You are not allowed to go on strike or freely move from one occupation to another. There is no incentive to work harder because everyone is distributed the same ration anyways. The standard of living is poor for everyone. People often lose their individual rights as well. For example you are not allowed to have opposing political views from the communists in power and you are often not allowed to practice any religion. Electricity and water is often turned off during the night or during off hours to conserve resources for a huge monstrous bureaucratic system. Bureaucracy is infamous for being inefficient.


What examples of communism do we have?


China is fairly communist. Cuba. North Korea. Vietnam. Many eastern Europe countries suffered the wrath of Soviet Union communism such as: Romania, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, czech republican, Germany.


Communists often refer to capitalism as "crony capitalism" or "evil Capitalists" or "capitalist pigs". This is because of their jealousy that others were more innovative, willing to take the chance at risking a capital investment and leveraging themselves, and become successful as an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurship to me is an action that deserves rewards. Laziness, lack of skills, and unreliability and disloyalty should not reward you. Despite this, here in capitalist America we supply the poor lazy unemployed workers with no skills welfare in the form of free housing, free food, free electricity, free water, free education, free clothing, free library cards, you name it. So the poor in this country are NOT abandoned. There are countless not-for-profit organizations within our country that get a free pass on taxes so that they can outreach via community programs and support such as Red Cross, Salvation Army, Goodwill, etc. etc. there are so many of them.


The fact is that even the most poor in America have a higher standard of living than the hardest working and most skilled in a Communist Country.


To the Communists on this forum. I challenge you to name one Communist country in the history of the world that we can analyze for its prosperity and success as a communist country. I will simply argue how the system of communism ultimately failed far faster than a comparable capitalist system fails.


I also presume that every communist on this forum is currently living in a CAPITALIST country. That is the utter irony. So you are glorifying a system that you know little about (just looking from the outside in) and you are hating a system that provides you with all the luxuries that you currently have.


Also you are welcome to boast communist leaders. Lenin, Stalin, Castro, etc. Hell we can examine what Karl Marx's vision really was. Build. Convince me that communism is better than Capitalism, because right now I feel convinced that capitalism has had a net positive effect for mankind and has catalyzed the advancements in technology and created conditions that have allowed for such a population explosion. I'm not arguing that capitalism is perfect. But there is no better system.