Drake_Dercon said:
I could see a version working.
A version perhaps, but not true communism. Remember, there's no true Capitalism, cause one of the key points of it is a free market without government intervention, and so far as I know, none of those exist anywhere.
Seeing as how both of these are more economic views (otherwise this owuld have to be a democracy vs. Communism in which the former can be an abysmal mess and the latter simply cant exist), I believe Capitalism on the whole is better then Communism.
So, saying that, I would saw it all really rather depends on the society and stage in which your country exists. Capitalism inspires growth, as its about evolution, in a round about way. So you'll have businesses fight and tear at each other, trying to gain that piece of the pie, making oyur country and economy stronger, as long as you have everything you need in your country and your gov. remains stable. Once you get strong enough and are still self reliant (because if you mix external/internation trade, the equation gets thrown out of balance as I'll show later), and your people are in a Utopian like society, communism can be obtained and practiced so that all of your citizens are happy and equal.
However, the problem is that Communism is defeated by human greed, while Capitalism isnt so much ruined by our nature, but rather a compromise to it. Its like its saying, "hey, I knwo you're human, and you're all fucked up on some level. So you know, lets use that. You can be fair and equal and still get ahead, sure. But if you'd rather, you can just be vicious bastardly cutthroats and tear into each other. The stronger one will find themselves at the top, and new business can enter and leave as they choose."
Lets take communism and capitalism on a small scale. We'll view two towns, Com Town and Cap Town.
In Com town, the citizens all want to be equal. They want everything split fairly and reasonably, so that everyone may be on the equal footing. There's no need for a board to watch something, and everyone uses their skills, making each sector of business and its sub sectors monopolies. The baker is the only baker, and he bakes bread for everyone. The farmer is the only farmer, and he grows crops for everyone, on equal sized land. The child care forer is the child care forer, and she cares for all the children, including hers, all of whcih the families have equal number, so as no family is to go hungry and no family has excessive surplus of things like food because they only have one child while the family next to them has five. Now, we have Tom, who is the miner. he mines the coal for everyone. One day, he goes to mine, and finds gold. Now, he likes gold. He's never seen it before, doesnt know if more exists. He thinks it would look pretty for his wife, or maybe his daughter. Perhaps a good inheritence for his son. But he has to share, by law of communism. What does he do? Lie, and go against it, satisfying himself? or does he show what he's found and have it thrown away, as its too small to break up evenly for everyone to have equal share. Tom decides to keep it, and someone finds out. Outbreaks start, everyone is selfish. The Bread maker keeps his bread, the farmer his crops, the child care forer doesnt watch the children. Because everyone is equal, and no one has the same skill as another so competition doesnt exist, those who can not grow/make food starve, those that can not build can not fix their homes. In the end, everyone dies, and thats because one person is greedy.
Now, lets look at Cap Town.
Cap town encourages its citizens to grow. To compete and let the market decide what happens. Price dictates equilibrium, and those in the market compete for profit. Everyone has the chance to get in, and anyone can do anything they choose. Susie no longer wants to be a receptionist. She wants to be a manager, or hell, a CEO. So she does and goes to do it, leaving her receptionist job. Wanting the same job are three other women, as well as two men. Susie must make herself stand out, so she works on her skills and enhances them, bettering herself. Sure, maybe she doesnt get the job, but she's better for it, and can start her own business, which has the potential to either fail or reign king (or in this case, queen). Johny wants ten kids (god knows why), but Mark down the street only wants two. Both get waht they want, but Johny has to feed his. So he buys more, no letting the food go to waste between the 12 of them (kids plus parents). But lets say he cant. Should Mark have to give up his food so its fair with Johny's large family? Hell no, johny should have kept it in his pants. Cap town eventually breeds the strongest, letting people use as much of their greed as the choose, letting only their personal restraints restrict what they can and can not do, as well as the skills the people can choose to learn, or choose not to.
While people in Cap town may suffer some, they are happy, and fulfilling their goals. Assuming of course in both towns there are no crimes committed.
When you add international trade, it gets worse for Communism, since no country has EVERYTHING they need to produce in their country's lands.
Lets say Cap Town and Com Town have a mutual neighbor town (Coap Town) and friend that both trade with, and the town acknowledges both forms for trade, practicing each form for its respective user. Com Town cant produce steel items, and needs Coap town to trade them their wares in exchange for say... um... I dontk now... oranges (dont ask how they equal). Coap town must now produce enough steel for its country, and to trade with Cap town who will trade with them Apples for their steel. So to trade with Com Town, Coap Town must produce enough steel for all the uses its 700 citizens want, the steel any of the uses the Citizens of Cap town that can afford it wish to have, and the 500 citizens of Com Town, who all must have enough steel for their uses. Without Cap Town, Coap town must make 1200 citizen's worth of steel, and only be traded the amount of oranges so that its enough for all of its citizens to equally share. THere's no profit, no real incentive, because you dont gain anything and you are doing basically double (triple with cap town) work so that you can trade foreignly with just three towns in the picture.
However, if Coap Town trades with Cap Town, the people who have apples will give Coap town more apples, letting them sell and make profit. In return, not so much work is down for the people that make steel, because they only have to sell to those who can afford it in cap town who themselves will see it back. So lets say only 50 people of the 800 in Cap Town can afford steel, and they wish to sell 150 people's worth of steel for profit. Thats only 900 people's worth of steel that must be made by the Coap Town. And profit is given. Coap Town residents have a surplus, of apples. some can have more then others, or use it to sell to others in exchange for items of worth in surplus that dont need to be destroyed, since not everyone has to be equal.
Summing up: while neither has ever had a REAL example ever shown, Capitalism in Practice and theory makes more sense. Its all free market. The Market decides itself, and balances. At your worst you're in a constant state of evenness thats broken up by only a few periods of Surplus or Scarcity. It forces the people that follow it to be stronger, to be self assertive, and more knowledgible. WIth more skills the person can do more, and get further ahead. it also opens up so that anyone can join in, and keep what they find/make.
With Communism, everything is equal. Its a sociological stop in terms of evolution, as no one betters themselves, or aspires to change. Everything is shared, so if something cant be its destroyed. Say you cant read, that means books must be destroyed, because you are in capable of reading, and everyone must be at your level.
But thats just my opinion.
