Communism Vs Capitalism

Communism vs. Capitalism

In the political tract the Communist Manifesto, Karl Marx describes communism as the party that “fights for the interests of the working class” while capitalists are considered “dependent and have no individuality -- only capital is dependent and has individuality". Both of Marx’s statements are true in nature but when the two economic systems are put in practice, they quickly disintegrate into the same end result today, that is to say that most communistic nations fail while capitalists flourish. There will never be a pure version of capitalism or communism. However, capitalism, despite its many flaws, has a proven track record; while communism has failed in practice. An argument can be made for reformation of the current system to eliminate some of its flaws, but a switch to communism would not only not solve the world's problems but most likely cause many more.

True communism depends on human nature being completely altruistic. For communism to work, members of society either need to be altruistic enough to want to work for the benefit of their neighbors, or they need to be forward thinking enough to see that what benefits the whole will, in turn, benefits themselves. Members of society must be far-sighted enough to be able to comprehend large-scale social benefits, which tend to be more abstract in nature and more difficult to recognize. In contrast, capitalism allows for an individual to obtain a paycheck, buy a material good and have a tangible object that can directly relate to the individual’s effort. If human nature is basically egoistic, then true communism will not work. People are inherently selfish and therefore, working for the common good will be a lesser priority as opposed to the tendency to freeload or otherwise take advantage of the system. There it becomes apparent the inherent flaw in the communist model. All communist economies eventually flounder because of lack of monetary incentives. Communists reduced the lowest levels of poverty, but could not advance the general material welfare. Internal violence was reduced, but not necessarily international violence. Thus, communist economies all over the globe, from small utopias (New Harmony, Lanark) to entire nations (Russia, China), have given up on their attempts to establish free societies because equality and incentive are incompatible. Today, all attempts by leftist governments to create classless societies result in merely replacing the bureaucracy while the general population still poor, as demonstrated in nations such as China and North Korea. Distribution of benefits across the entire populous does not promote increased income because of the lack of incentives for the people to work. The lack of incentives under communism will eventually lead to poverty, as it did in Russia, Eastern Europe, China and Cuba.

In contrast, most, if not all of the richer countries have capitalist economies and most are democratic. Capitalism feeds off of the inherent greed and egocentric nature in human beings. Instead of forcing a predetermined limit on production, capitalism encourages the individual to compete amongst neighbors to come out on the top of the economic ladder. In a form of socialistic Darwinism, in a capitalistic society, only the strongest and the wisest survive while the rest simple fade away. This leads to a society that is dominated by progress and competition. However, a truly capitalistic society would follow this