Capitalism vs. Communism: Which do you prefer?

Communism

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by Perry McCarney

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The perception of most in the Western world considers capitalism to be intrinsically linked to democracy and freedom, and communism to be represented by the totalitarianism of the previous USSR and the supposedly communist Red China. The perfectly legitimate anti-Soviet attitudes of the US government in the 1950s were promulgated and evidenced as an anti-communist rhetoric that was in itself totally illegitimate. Communism not having existed as a reality in the USSR since Stalin took control prior to World War II, if it managed to continue anywhere near that long after the October revolution of 1917.

Nor is capitalism an intrinsic component of democracy, it is essentially a system of economics rather than one of politics. We have the concept of comparing apples and pears when discussing two disparate items, but comparing capitalism to communism is more like comparing apples to broccoli. Both are ideologies linked to human social perception, but they are not in the same arena. While capitalism permeates all democratic societies currently extant on Earth, the fact that it is flourishing to the degree it is in modern day Red China, a totalitarian state, shows how independent from democracy it truly is. An unblinkered analysis actually shows that the political systems it is most linked to are anarchy and totalitarianism.

The concept of the Free Market is a fundamental aspect of capitalism, a desire for a completely unregulated economic market. "No rules" is a basic tenet of an anarchic political system. Yet the free market is not about individual human freedom, it is about the freedom of corporate entities from any constraint by society and any political forms chosen by the people of that society. These corporate entities are structured in an hierarchical form that for the most part suppresses decency and responsibility as components of that form, unless they are deliberately included in the founding documents of said entities. Their structure is totalitarian. The bottom line is the driving motivation, and all such corporations while pushing for unregulated trade are really seeking uncontested control of the market, ultimately desiring monopolies and therefore domination and unrestrained power. The methods of the large retail chains to undercut and eliminate independent businesses when they move into a new location is a prime and public example of this ambition.

Communism is predicated on the basis of people earning social reward and recognition on the basis of what they supply to their community and society. That every child should be given the opportunity to learn to the best of their ability in the areas they are most capable at, to the best benefit of their community. It is not meant to be dominated by a dictator, and certainly not one who then passes it on to his brother, such as has occurred in Cuba. That every attempt so far to form a human political entity based on communism has quickly failed is not due to human nature. It is due to the animal nature of those "people" who strive to dominate in any society, no matter what its supposed political structure might be. The same type of people dominate our societies world-wide, except where indigenous people still retain primary control over their own communities. This is the greatest downfall and crime of what we arrogantly call "civilization".

Capitalism professes to allow any person within its society to be able to better themselves and advance. That it is the ultimate freedom. But how real is this? Quality education continues to be the providence of the wealthy. Advancement within businesses requires a ruthlessness that disregards the ethics of decency and kindness, or accepted connections to the "old boys" network. The beneficent professions, such as nursing and teaching, receive financial recompense well below that of non-productive professions such as finance, marketing and selling. Those who actually create the goods our capitalist societies depend on earn little and are considered inferior, where such productions haven't already been moved to third world nations to be done by virtually slave labor! Not only are the world's resources wasted producing extreme amounts of packaging, the goods themselves are deliberately manufactured to fail soon after their warranty period expires, so that replacements will have to be purchased. Not only is this wasteful, it is a major contributor to the poverty billions of people have no choice but to live in, because production is focused on resupplying the reasonably well off rather than meeting everyone's needs.

Pretending that the design and manufacture of goods are controlled by consumer demand is exactly that. A pretense. Personally, I would love to be able to buy a pair of shoes with soles that would last several years, just as I could when I was a young man. After several pairs of $30 dollar shoes failing to meet that bill, I bought a pair for $300. They lasted just over twice as long before their soles cracked completely across.

Capitalism encourages greed and selfishness, and requires that a sizable percentage of the population is unemployed and impoverished to constrain the expectations of the producers or workers. Communism endeavors to provide all with what they need and continually improve on that. It is based on community rather than individual well-being, something that has become anathema in the capitalist world. But to who?

Our world today is dominated by the rich and powerful in every country. Except for the entertainers, the movie stars, etc., few of these people actually create anything at all. They inherit wealth or manipulate others to amass their fortunes.

The problem with communism is not its concepts, but the ability to maintain them in the face of those that would corrupt them for their own advantage. Those like Stalin, that would take over a decent system through a reign of terror.

Capitalist economics has demonstrated time and again that it fails; with cyclic depressions and recessions, again and again. The whole concept of economic growth is based on an evil fallacy. Started during the period of European colonialism, growth being based on conquering less developed nations and stealing their resources. It is blatantly obvious that a finite world cannot achieve economic growth indefinitely.

Our world is in the appalling state it is because of the virtually unconstrained deprivations of capitalism and the totalitarianism that masquerades as communism; believing the problems can be resolved through market forces is farther fetched than believing that fairies push up daisies! Capitalism is supposedly based on competition, but why should we believe that that is the best approach? Whenever there is a natural disaster, our political masters (servants?) ask us to work cooperatively to recover from it. If this is the case when things are bad, why should it not be even more so when things are not?

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