Capitalism or Communism
by d 92 Replies latest jw friends
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dgp
Yan Bibyan, may I ask where you were at the time?
For the record:
The Gulag Archipelago, by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (USSR):
http://www.amazon.com/Gulag-Archipelago-1918-1956-Experiment-Investigation/dp/0813332893
The New Class, by Milovan Djilas (Yugoslavia):
Against all Hope, by Armando Valladares (Cuba): http://www.amazon.com/Against-All-Hope-Memoir-Castros/dp/1893554198/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1301845643&sr=8-1
Pol Pot, Anatomy of a Nightmare (Cambodia):
http://www.amazon.com/Pol-Pot-Nightmare-Philip-Short/dp/0805080066/ref=pd_sim_b_5
The Power of the Powerless: Citizens Against the State in Central-Eastern Europe, by Vaclav Havel (Czechoslovakia)
Mao's Great Famine: The History of China's Most Devastating Catastrophe, 1958-1962 (China, of course):
Letters from Prison and Other Essays (Society and Culture in East-Central Europe), by Adam Michnik (Poland):
The Captive Mind, by Czeslaw Milosz (Poland again):
Robert Mugabe and the Betrayal of Zimbabwe, by Andrew Norman:
Improper Conduct, about Cuba:
Red Horizons: The True Story of Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu's Crimes, Lifestyle and Corruption (Romania):
The Lives of Others (East Germany):
Why Did the Soviet Union Collapse: Understanding Historical Change, by Robert Strayer (about the Soviet Union, of course):
Ok, guys. Does Communism Work?
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Satanus
Technicaly, china is still a communist country run by dictators. They own everything. If they say people have no rights, they have no rights. It's just that the dictators have opened the country for capitalist business. Maoist communism was merely a jog to the left. China has a long history, and it's been dictatorial all the way. Perhaps, it could be called communistic capitalism, or dictatorial communistic capitalism, at the moment?
S
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dgp
Satanus: YES, China is still a communist country. They only operate the economy as a capitalist thing, but one of the worst kind. What are the salaries there? Do you have the slightest hope of protesting against your employer?
By the way, I deserve to be sent to re-education camps and be modelled after the New Man, the glorious son of the Proletariat. My mistake, my mistake, my terrible mistake. How could I forget about the Dear Leader, the Eternal President? Do I, or do I not deserve to be punished for such a horrible omission?
How could I forget the Dear Leader, comrade Kim Il Sung?
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scary21
CoonDawg, I love your posts. I find myself agreeing with what you say alot! Rand is over the top, but it IS a novel. In my circle of friends there are many ideas..................I like it like that, makes life interesting, don't you think?
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Satanus
:)
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ldrnomo
Capitalism is driven by greed which is not necessarily all bad as long as it is tempered by some compassion for man. Not all capitalists have that compassion so it then becomes necessary to regulate greed so it doesn't loose sight of man's overall state.
Communism is a form of forced altruism and it cannot compete with capitalism because the main drive of man is survival and survival of the fittest has always been the norm.
Communism fails because workers who have guaranteed jobs at companies with little or no competition fail at providing products and services at consistent quality levels. For example, in Estonia when it was a Soviet occupied country it took up to 6 months to get phone service. There was no motivation for the State phone company and it's employees to provide services in a timely basis.
Controlling Capitalism is a tricky issue. It has to be done so as not to limit competition in a global market yet it has to protect those that are in its grasp. The market itself is the best way to control capitalism. When the market is educated and makes good choices in acquiring it's needs from capitalists with a social conscience then more capitalists will do what's necessary to deliver to that market.
The "green revolution" is a good example of how this works. For decades car manufacturers produced vehicles that were large, guzzled fuel, and made the corporations a lot of profit. The market consumed these vehicles so the manufacturers made more. Expensive fuel has changed the markets demands and so now the manufacturers are listening and acting. The reasons vary but the outcome is always the same. The market drives capitalism it's really not the other way around.
In what way do capitalists try to take control of the market? The simple answer is advertising if a capitalist economy can sell it's consumers on a product they win.
Communism on the other hand has shown repeatedly that it has no chance of succeeding. Capitalism always takes over.
So my quick answer is and this is what I think man is trying to do in many parts of the world. Capitalism with a social conscience but this can only be accomplished from the bottom up. Consumers have to be informed. They have to make purchasing decisions based on the overall good of the earth their fellow man and their health.
Let's take food for example. We need to become informed as to what we consume and once we make the right choices we will drive the big capitalist corporations to our wishes and needs. This is already taking place with organics and fast foods. For example how many here would regularly eat at MacDonald's?
PS if you answer is "I would" then I recommend the movie "Food Inc."
it's good education.
Capitalism is the only thing that works.
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d
Without capitalism our society would be so advaned.Karl Marx had the right idea about equal distrubution of goods among men but he forget human nature, which is to compete for resources this is why capitalism although it has it's flaws seems to only work well with our greedy self serving human nature.Capitalism is survival of the fittest in a nutshell.
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d
Without capitalism our society would be so advaned.Karl Marx had the right idea about equal distrubution of goods among men but he forget human nature, which is to compete for resources this is why capitalism although it has it's flaws seems to only work well with our greedy self serving human nature.Capitalism is survival of the fittest in a nutshell.
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Satanus
Idorno
I agree. However, it is a battle, because advertising directed at consumers is a barage that appeals to whatever weakness, ignorance or whatever fad that will sell the product. At times, a whole industry can become monolithic, taking over even the informational system connected to it's field. This is the case in pharmaceuticals. The fda has been coopted. The medical profession is in big pharma's thrall. The govt has no other option than to follow along, what w the army of lobbyists and congressmen being connected to the industry.
S