Because of its incorrect portrayal by the left a lot of people misunderstand what capitalism is. Quite simply it is serving one’s fellow man. A capitalist competes in the free market to provide goods and services to other people. All the parties involved benefit from every transaction. It is this amazingly successful mechanism that has built all the world’s wealth over the last 4,000 years and has paid for all the other -isms. With globalisation it has brought billions of people out of poverty during the last few decades. It is the greatest force for good on planet earth.
A capitalist loves it when other people are rich. He knows that wealth is not a zero sum game and the more wealth there is the better he can provide his goods and services. A capitalist hates cronyism, corporatism, clientism, rent seeking, socialism and corruption because they interfere with the market and make everyone poorer.
To a capitalist government is a necessary evil at best, to provide stability, security, infrastructure, education a level playing field and law and order. Unfortunately governments take it upon themselves to do ever more, to interfere in all that they can. And everything they do they do badly, they cause huge damage to the free market and in doing so harm all their citizens. It is those countries of the world where the government interferes least in the market that experience the greatest success. Just look at Hong Kong and Singapore.
Socialism believes in “social justice” which means equality of outcome for all regardless of how much or how little they put in. So, human nature being what it is, everyone puts in less. Socialism believes in “redistribution” which means expropriating from successful people in order to waste on their dogma and to give to unsuccessful people. Socialism believes that the state knows best and should have the maximum power over every individual person. Â And socialism tries to run and control everything in society, including businesses. It always does this very badly. Any socialist enterprise does not have to look after its customers, so it doesn’t. Any socialist enterprise does not have to make profits and be efficient, so it isn’t.
So you can see that socialism causes harm to people. Whenever it has been tried it has caused harm to everyone in society. Just look at Cuba and Venezuela now, or postwar and winter of discontent Britain, or the Soviet Union, or Eastern Europe, or even Vietnam. Every single time that socialism has ever been tried on the face of planet earth it has failed miserably. It really does occupy the moral low ground and is mostly just pure evil.
Many societies, for instance Western Europe today, try and mix socialism with capitalism. So what you get is the capitalist part of the economy looking after people and creating all the wealth whilst the socialist part fritters the wealth away, looks after people badly and interferes in the market with cronyism and corporatism. Which is why these countries have performed so badly compared with the rest of the world, they just cannot be competitive.
A major factor of capitalism is that it requires the maximum possible personal freedom and human rights, any suppression of these stops free markets from working properly. Socialism requires authoritarianism in order to be implemented (it never works) as anyone who has studied history will tell you. This is incredibly pernicious and evil.
So there you have it. Capitalism believes in freedom and serving one’s fellow man. Socialism believes in control and stealing. It is very clear to see that capitalism is vastly morally superior to socialism.
And finally never forget the immense death count of socialism. It has killed more than all other political philosophies and religions put together.
Previous blogs with more discussion on these subjects (click highlighted text to open).
Capitalism, what is it? Most people really don’t understand.
Socialism, what is it? Most people really don’t understand.
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Wow, this might be the most juvenile, unintellectual discussion I’ve ever seen on capitalism and socialism.
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Dingle Berry,
See how badly you fail on the pyramid of intellect:
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WOW, Capitalism assumes the capitalist, age 18+ is capable of making huge wages to support themselves and family, purchase home, cars, other necessary items. The Public Education provided by the community stopped at Senior Graduation. No job skills have been learned. What do you do now?
Democratic Socialism [DS] provides the Community the governing system to provide job training, apprenticeship, skills necessary for employment. [DS] could provide vocational testing, and those who have the skill level, could be provided advanced education.
Of course there are the “incidentals” food, water, room and board, health and dental care, and other expenses. Indeed, these expenses would begin at birth. Perhaps a basic income is necessary. But “Capitalism” does not provide for any of this,
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Eggum,
You really don’t understand capitalism.
But you can learn: http://www.bruceonpolitics.com/2015/02/02/capitalism-utterly-fantastic/
Everything that the state does it does badly. So the less state the better. Capitalism can provide all the services the state provides, but does it much, much better.
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Your “examples” are false, likely written by a TROLL. Your capitalism is slavery by another name;
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Eggum,
Some well reasoned debating points there. You obviously put a lot of thought into them.
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Step 1. Brainwash the young into thinking they are oppressed to do the dirty work (rioting, terrorizing) for you in the form of SLAVERY without it costing the evil puppet masters behind it all any $$.
Step 2. Socialisim with keeping the brainwashed flakes thinking from thinking for themselves and keep them thinking you care for the flakes well being and lie by telling them utopia will be heaven on earth.
Step 3. Communism (oh please let a Flake try to argue that socialism never nor does become communism…please please lmao). So now the flakes did all the leg work for this to get to step 3, so no need to lie anymore….guess what flakes: we lied, thanks for doing the hard work, enjoy being our slaves and enjoy absolutely no utopia and no freedoms. If you rebel? Well let’s just say you that you won’t have the chance to enjoy the fake rewards promised. Oh and no one will ever have to listen to you or see you anymore. Thanks again to you all.
So there you have it snowflakes in America and Britain, a lesson that you were not taught and probably will attempt at arguing with. I can’t help but feel little sorry over the fact that you actually think you KNOW what socialism is. You don’t even know how to argue and debate without freaking out, stomping feet, crying, lying in a fetal position wanting your safe place. It’s lie arguing with a marshmallow hoping it will hear you.
So, before you try to state as fact that capitalism is slavery under another name. I’ll be one of those laughing AT YOU while you cry with thumb in mouth trying to figure out why everything you fought for enslaved you under socialism….,GO LEARN YOUR forms of Government without using BIASED material. Wake up! Think for YOURSELF! Oh and please stop assuming you know what racism is. Because everyone is racist against something and someone for something LOOK UP THE DEFINITION IN A (here it comes…) BOOK. It’s called a dictionary and you really should find one printed PRIOR to 1990. Bet you are afraid to, bet you are afraid to use your brain to think on your own. Dare ya!!!
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I think you have a slight confusion. Socialism, has NOTHING to do with communism. you can’t just lump the two together.
Hitler was not a socialist, he was a fascist
Stalin was not a socialist, he was a communist. same with zedong
while you say capitalism is against corruption, it fuels corruption in the senate
i respect your opinion that the free market matters more to you, but you present socialism like it is there to steal from the rich and oppress people’s freedoms, which is not really true.
you see, all governments take away freedoms, in exchange for rights.
for example: you trade away your freedom to steal property in exchange for the right to own property.
the issue i have with capitalism, is that it leaves the wealth with a small fraction of the population, that everyone else no matter how hard they try, will never get to share in.
socialism is idea that everyone should get what they need, and the thing is, as it stands today, there is no flat tax. a flat tax being a percentage of what you earn payed to the government across all social classes. my envisionment is that everyone pays 10% of their earnings to the government, but, this doesn’t happen in the upper classes, they get to pay a lower percentage to the government, which socialism tries to correct. If you call that stealing, i wonder what you’ll say when there is actual theft.
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Executive Desna
Irrefutable proof, with many references, that Hitler was a socialist. Click to open.
The Soviet Union’s name, CCCP, translates as Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
Also you are confused about governments, they take away both our freedoms and our rights so as to have more power for themselves.
And capitalism makes EVERYONE richer. You don’t like it that it makes some people, because of their enterprise, hard work and risk taking, more successful than others. You just don’t like people being more successful than you, no matter how much they have earned it.
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‘Socialism believes in “social justice†which means equality of outcome for all regardless of how much or how little they put in.’
– I don’t agree with this. Social justice means the equality of opportunity (not outcome), i.e. a disabled person has, as much as possible, the same opportunity for success as an able-bodied person.
‘Socialism believes in “redistribution†which means stealing from successful people in order to give to unsuccessful people.’
– When the vast majority of wealth is built off the back of “unsuccessful” people, I should fucking hope that the wealth trickles down! And I believe more should trickle down, and faster, than it currently does. There’s also a huge discussion around social mobility, and what it means to be “successful”, but that’s for another discussion. I’d say your article is too simplistic for this level of nuance necessary.
‘And socialism tries to run and control everything in society, including businesses.’
– Good. Imagine a state so tiny that is has no power at all, leaving the people and the planet at the whims of big business who, thanks to the profit incentive, literally give zero fucks about anything but lining their pockets.
I’m not a socialist or an anti-capitalist but I do believe in regulation.
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You are incredibly naive’ and apparently have never even traveled to a socialist democracy. It is beneath you to let the greedy rich con you into believing that fascist states have ever been socialist. –
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Johnny Laford,
I have been round the world twice, traveled extensively throughout Eastern Europe when the Berlin Wall fell, have visited many of the socialist Arab states of the Middle East, went to several of the states of the former Soviet Union and even flew to Cuba. Everywhere seeing the failure that is socialism. The dogma does not generate wealth so it makes everyone far poorer, except for the fat cats at the top. Fidel Castro is incredibly rich as was Hugo Chavez, money stolen from the people. I have also read The Economist newspaper from cover to cover every week for more than fourty years.
I have also been to Hong Kong and Singapore and seen the amazing success of capitalism, generating wealth and making everyone in society richer. Hong Kong, with no natural resources and embargoed by its superpower neighbour went from being one of the poorest nations on earth to one of the richest. Capitalism is utterly fantastic when it is allowed to work.
I suggest that you get yourself a bit of education, why not go to The Economist online and read the articles about Venezuela to learn about yet another, inevitable, abject failure of socialism?
Also here is some selected reading from this blog to help compensate for the obvious failures in your education:
Here is a list of failures of British Labour governments and a summary of who the idiots are who vote for them. (click highlighted text to open)
Here is an explanation for you of what socialism really is, because you obviously don’t understand this.
And here Capitalism explained for you. Read this and you will learn how brilliant it is.
Here is an article containing links to a whole series of articles proving absolutely that Hitler was a socialist and that Nazi Germany was a socialist state.
Finally an article comparing the abject failure of socialism in Cuba and comparing it with the amazing success of capitalism in Hong Kong, based on my visits to both of these places.
If you read all that, are capable of understanding it, and do not suffer from too much confirmation bias and cognitive dissonance, then you will always vote Conservative from now on.
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It doesn’t take anyone with academic education to see through the blatant lies of this post.
How does removing the safety net give those at the bottom freedom?
“Work for me on low wages and bad working conditions or starve to death”
that is the real objective of Libertarians, they just dress it up with enticing words like “freedom”
the reality is to enslave the working class to a point where they are considered a commodity,
despite them yammering on that they are not “conservatives” their true goal is to reinforce the %1 monopoly.
“then you will always vote Conservative from now on”
Confirmation bias? not even hiding your true agenda with that line.
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Nice, another alleged capitalist that fails to tell (or even understand) that capitalism only exists in symbiosis with the State. This basic principle has not been extensively stated and studied by socialists, but by capitalists themselves.
You are completely forgetting the role of “force” in social / economical trades and activities. Force is always a monopoly and in order to have what you call the “free market” the State must exercise that monopoly. Competition alone does not erase or control the force (as it is obvious that none of the competitors can hold a monopoly). Consequently, there is no free market unless fair competition is granted by a third part, that being the State, not some other imaginary ethereal being and definitely not the free market itself. In other words, thinking that the free market automatically creates fair competition, whilst in truth is fair competition that enables free market to exist, is nothing more than a huge formal fallacy.
Inequality (or unfair competition if you prefer) occurs when the State delegates the monopoly of force to individuals and/or companies. In fact, it is widely known that the State has sometimes to “force” competition itself in order for the free market to actually exist. Without a state (or an analogue institution) there is no free market at all.
Stalin’s USSR is an example of a capitalist State: ironically, there were no actual soviets in the Soviet Union. The difference with other western States was that everything (force, production means, etc.) was merged into the bureaucratic machine and, ultimately, in the hands of Stalin. For as much as anti-stalinists marxists try to overlook what happened, the flaw is in Marx’s theory: his idea was that a “transitional proletarian State” is necessary in order to achieve actual communism. However, history has generously disproved his theory, on the contrary it has proven that the existence of the State inevitably creates and supports capitalism.
Therefore, the capitalism vs marxism dispute is anachronistic at best.
And your lack of understanding of economics, history and capitalism itself is quite worrying.
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You are a ludicrous clown.
Socialism is Cancer.
As for your assertion, “Stalin’s USSR is an example of a capitalist State”
Fuck Off you complete Wanker.
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Accurate and concise Bruce. Such a shame so many comments are negative by uneducated people in basic laissez faire economics. Too many people ‘feeling’ they are victims and would rather blame others who had the forethought to work hard and climb the social/economic ladder with hard graft, rather than recognise their own failures in life. They’d rather pull everyone down to their level than roll up their sleeves. Entitlement and social justice will ultimately see those unwilling to contribute face even more despair as welfare costs surpass taxation contributions. It can’t and won’t last.
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Hmm, let’s see … The 25,000 babies who die of malnutrition every day? Hungry kids eating mud cookies in Haiti? Children picking through landfills in Mexico City? Child sex slaves in Thailand? Cocoa farmers so poor they’ve never tasted their own chocolate in Côte d’Ivoire? Illiterate teenagers digging out cobalt for your cell phone in the DRC? Mail order brides trying to migrate from the Philippines? Street children in Calcutta? Giant slum cities in Kenya? Somali fishermen in polluted waters who become pirates to survive? Desperate oil rig kidnappers in Nigeria? Massive favelas in Brazil? Bangladeshi poor selling their organs to eat? Hell, contaminated drinking water in Flint, Michigan! One of the greatest crimes of capitalism is that it represses the ingenuity, creativity, and potential of people, as the majority never have the chance to develop themselves freely. Trotsky once asked, “How many Aristotles are herding swine?” before adding, “How many swineherds are sitting on thrones?” That’s why the essence of socialism is to make actual all the potential in the human race.
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Rez,
Capitalism has brought unparalleled advancement to humanity. Everything you describe was very many times worse just 50 years ago and indescribably worse 200 years ago. Of course now things could be even better, but the dead hand of the cancer that is socialism has harmed all of humanity. From the mass murders of the 20th century socialists, Stalin, Hitler, Pol Pot and Chairman Mao, through the debilitating of the post war economies in both Western and Eastern Europe through to the deep corrosive debauched destruction of Cuba and Venezuela. Fortunately the world now knows the truth, that every single time socialism has been tried it has failed and in that failure it has always done immense damage. The only people who don’t understand this self evident truth are children and academics.
Success of capitalism:
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Rez,
In every socialist country there are an elite who are fabulously rich. From the Soviet Union through to Venezuela and Cuba today. Unlike with capitalism this rich elite do not owe their riches to wealth creation. No, the socialist rich get there by stealing directly from the people. No matter how poor that makes the people. Whereas capitalists want everyone to be rich, because a business will thrive with rich customers. Capitalism always wins because it is closer to the human psyche. Competing in the market to look after people aligns well with the human condition. Whereas envy based socialism, punishing success and rewarding failure can only lead to more failure, as we have seen so many times. The triumph of capitalism has been a triumph for everyone who lives in a free country not blighted by socialism. This success is spectacular, just look at the way global poverty has been largely banished.
http://26t4l93f9dhe439yxm286lpv.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/cmtcoe_wgaayvnd.png
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Wow this is a terrible article for someone who is as educated and cultured as you claim to be. Such a shallow understanding of social science.
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” If you can cut the people off from their history, then they can be easily persuaded. ” ~ Karl Marx
The man that these Snowflakes look up to and idolize. Well, I think this quote sums up how brainwashed they are. Idolizing the man that taught the puppet masters how to control them and their sick twisted thoughts.
“Communism… is the genuine resolution of the antagonism between man and nature and between man and man; it is the true resolution of the conflict between existence and essence, objectification and self-affirmation, freedom and necessity, individual and species. It is the riddle of history solved and knows itself as the solution.” Karl Marx
So I’ll ask you socialist loving flakes one question…..Do you still really think you can keep repeating that socialism doesn’t become communism? Even when your self proclaimed idol of utopia states the above?
“The meaning of peace is the absence of opposition to socialism” Karl Marx
In other words….peace can only be attained by becoming a socialist. So now everything someone worked hard for and struggled for is open game for me to take. I THINK ILL PASS ON THAT. I was never one to run with the HERD, I was and always will be one to run straight at you. I’ll fight to the death before giving you flakes something I WORKED for. When you WORK for something you APPRECIATE what it is you achieved. When someone is SPOON fed everything they don’t care if it breaks, heck they would get pleasure from destroying it and demand a new one.
So here is my favorite quote to all you flakes floating around in your imaginary lands:
“How do you tell a Communist? Well, it’s someone who reads Marx and Lenin. And how do you tell an anti-Communist? It’s someone who understands Marx and Lenin.” —
Ronald Reagan U.S. President
Reading doesn’t equal Understanding. And I can do both, unlike all of you and your herd of readers without understanding.
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Well, in my opinion BOTH pure capitalism and also any ideology going by the name of communism will never work. Sun Yat-sen’s Tridemism — Three Principles of the People (Uniting Nationalism, Democracy, Welfarism) is the only ideology that can work perfectly.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Principles_of_the_People
We need personal liberty and human rights of capitalism, as well as some humanitarian aid and necessary intervention from socialism.
When corrupt elites and corporations exploit the people and harms the environment, socialism will save the world. But, some sort of capitalism is also necessary to guarantee basic freedom and human rights to ALL people.
Sure, communism is just a lame excuse for bandits and devils to ruin the world, but then, too much capitalism then the corrupt elites may exploit the people, and the people will be robbed of any chance because all is about money. Please don’t say that “socialism = communism and Nazism” – it’s as ridiculous as claiming that “Republic of China = Taiwan”.
Both Capitalism and Communism is bad. Look at what things the big bandit Mao Tse-tung did to China! And look at how capitalism exploits the commoners in every corner of the world! Irreplacable cultural heritages being destroyed, centuries of tradition being ruined and morality almost vanished from Mainland China!
P.S. Also, do note that the Communist Party of “China” wasn’t really wanting to purse communism, they just want power. And Karl Marx only seeks to destroy all of humanity.
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Capitalism.
An anti democratic, top down organisation of Labour, is on its last legs in the west.
This was written by conservatives but there are dozens from other independent organisations from the OECD to the US beureu of labour. All showing the same.
http://bit.ly/2xOmPiX
Additionally:
https://image.ibb.co/dEZ43F/image.png
https://ibb.co/iaS1Xa
https://ibb.co/dHt8Ca
In 2007 the top 2500 people were worth $2.5 Trillion
In 2017: $8 trillion
The top 8 people have more wealth than the bottom 3.5 billion.
1% of the planet owns 60% of all shares, accounting for 80% of the value of all shares.
50% o the companies in china are owned by the 1%.
What a fantastically undemocratic unbalanced, unstable system.
1. Your idea of what socialism is, is utterly flawed as you confuse socialism, with governance and you mistakenly believe there is this one thing called “socialism” which is bollocks.
Things Marx never wrote a word about:
A) Government ownership
B) Single party rule
C) central planning
What he wrote about was democracy at work. And you are going to see that spread, whether you like it or not.
https://youtu.be/6DNofdU4tSE
And here is the academics from a world renowned economist and her team, that proves it works better than capitalism:
https://www.uk.coop/sites/default/files/uploads/attachments/worker_co-op_report.pdf
2. And here is a real world example proving the above in actuality. A successful example of socialism (though there are thousands, including in the US and UK, you are just never told)
https://image.ibb.co/erogWR/worker.png
3. Hitler was no socialist, he actually had many of them shot. I can pin a ford mustang badge to a ford pinto, unless the pinto looks, and performs like a mustang, the badge doesn’t make it so.
What was the method of Production in Nazi Germany? Employer>Employee. Mostly private enterprise hand in hand with the state. That is so far to the right any left wing label applied is just laughable.
https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2013/02/dont-ever-call-hitler-socialist
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/11655230/Hitler-was-not-a-socialist-even-if-he-did-stash-champagne.html
Oh, and then there is this:
Martin Niemöller (1892–1984) was a prominent Protestant pastor who emerged as an outspoken public foe of Adolf Hitler and spent the last seven years of Nazi rule in concentration camps.
First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
4. Do you have any idea how many have died over 450 years of capitalism both in the revolutions to bring it in and the wars between capitalist nations, and the exploitation that came with this system and still persists in varying degree’s today. A system where the majority of workers produce the wealth and ideas, get a given a never increasing dribble of that wealth and lose all ownership of those ideas.
5. You may now moan as much as you wish in reply. Sadly for you no one is immortal, capitalism has a 33% approval rating in the UK across the population, and a 46% approval rating in the US of those aged under 30. The bribes that once dragged older voters to lean for the party in power have long since dried up.
6. The future is coming. Farewell.
https://image.ibb.co/fgYuhk/Votes_compaired.jpg