Everyone's making buttons for their websites to show their support for various and sundry causes, so I decided to jump into the fray with some pro-capitalism graphics. I'm no artist, but I play one on TV, and I think these 120x40 pixel gifs are perfect for displaying my belief that capitalism is the best -- and most moral -- economic system known to man.
An economic system being an inherently moral system? I don't see how any economic system is any more moral than any other.
Doesn't it really have more to do with how it's implemented and managed the people who are in charge?
I mean, I'm the furthest thing in the world from an economist - I can't balance my checkbook - but while most people believe communism is "evil" doesn't it make more sense to believe that it's just an easy system to pervert into a totalitarian system, aka USSR, China, N. Korea, Cuba, etc., when the wrong people are in charge?
And just because so far capitalism hasn't bred a totalitarian U.S. or England doesn't mean under the right circumstances it couldn't happen...
Maybe I'm just severely undereducated, but whenever I hear people extol the virtues of capitalism or the evils of communism, it doesn't make sense.
Oh good, I was hoping someone would take the bait ;)
Capitalism is inherently more moral than communism because capitalism is based on freedom. In a competitive, capitalistic society, everyone is free to pursue their work and business however they please. Some will succeed, some will fail, but it's due to their own efforts. This is premised, of course, on the assumption that freedom and liberty and good things.
In contrast, communism and socialism are based around control. The government, or the elite, tell everyone how to live, how to work, what to do; the economy is planned from the top down, and no one has the freedom to pursue their own goals or agenda. Everyone must work for the benefit of the "society". Insofar as depriving people of their freedom is bad, communism and socialism are evil.
It's no accident that totalitarian dictators love nationalistic, socialistic economies: they love the control.
And yes, communism is evil.
I still see it like saying a gun is evil or a gun is good. It's a tool that can help evil people do evil things very easily, but it can also protect people and gather food.
It depends on who's pulling the trigger ;)
It's not the same, because only communism views the economy as a tool to be controlled by the elite. Capitalism views the economy as a huge set of interactions between individuals with free will.
If you don't see anything morally wrong with controlling people and forcing them to work certain jobs and to live certain ways, then communism may not be bad to you.
But it will still be far less efficient than capitalism, because centralized economic control simply doesn't work. And that low efficiency will result inf a much worse standard of living for the average people, which may also be immoral to impose.
Michael Williams:
Great buttons! Capitalism is the ONLY moral and practical system. If you want to show the world that you are a radical capitalist, check out SJC's Dollar Sign Collection. You will find a link @ the capitalism category on my blog.
Best Premises,
Martin Lindeskog
Gothenburg, Sweden.
Barry,
I think a reasonable person could judge one political/economic system as morally superior to another if one can show that the incentive structure of one system is inherently more inclined to produce moral behavior than the incentive structure of the other. This is inherently the case in comparing capitalism and socialism/communism. Capitalism tends to incentivize qualities such as perserverance, innovation, achievement, mutual cooperation, and hard work. These are qualities rightfully judged as good and moral. The incentive structure for socialism/communism, on the other hand, tends to favor bullying, indolence, and taking advantage of others. My personal supposition is that is why supporters of socialism/communism tend to condemn the natural inclination to respond to incentives as greed or selfishness.