[Rant On/] Capitalism is a big pyramid scheme. I don’t have any faith in it and the brain washing they tried to do during my younger years didn’t do the trick. If you want to have a good life, you always need people that are under you and poorer than you.
The whole system of loaning money, charging interest, and printing money is the biggest scam out there. The rich get richer because they have the power to control the economy. [/Rant Off]
Meh, I thought I had more in me. Oh well.
You think people under Communist governments are better off?
That depends on who is in charge. You need a Jesus type person to make it a success.
The Communist governments so far have been duds but that doesn’t mean that it can’t work. You just need to beat the crap out of those that are corrupt. At least everyone is equal, theoretically.
Communism is the best system of government if you can pull it off. It works in small instances like communes because they can control all members. However, it doesn’t work in large scale due to one simple fact: A good portion of people are greedy douchebags. Douchebags don’t play nicely with others simply for the reason of not playing nice. This causes many things to fail in society, communism included.
Sorry to burst your bubble.
Sorry for the junior modding, but isn’t this more of a GD than a MPISMS?
Hard to say because there isn’t much of an argument here. It’s just a pointless post about how I don’t have faith in Capitalism.
[jr. mod hat on] [smacks** Auto ** in the face with a trout] [/jr. mod hat]
ChasingDreams, can you elaborate on any recent frustrations you’re talking about? Not detailed of course, but what kind of set you off on this thread?
That was your 666th post! aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh!!!
Capitalism isn’t the end-all and be-alls of economic systems for sure, but you’re going to have to show me anything which works better first. And no, Jesus running a Communist society would just immediately flop instead of running for a few decades like in Russia and China since Jesus wouldn’t be willing to kill people who angered him.
While as Capitalist countries, from the institution of the free market about 200 years ago, have consistently advanced human rights past anything Jesus would ever have wanted (abolishment of slavery, equal rights for women and soon homosexuals) and to a greater extent than ever happened in the 40,000 previous years.
The free market is a system which is enslaved to the consumer which makes it an automatic self-correcting system towards creating something that makes the average man happier than he was in previous generations. So while as individual assholes and bosses may make their subordinates unhappy, their life after work is improved. And having their after-work life improved means that they have time to sit on their ass and sue their company or form a union or send off resumes to different companies that won’t have an asshole boss.
You seem to know pretty well what Jesus wants/wanted and doesn’t want/wanted. Care to explain your stance?
::cue Der Trihs to argue about this::
Seriously, though, communism doesn’t work specifically because humans are competitive by nature. Sooner or later, one person is going to notice either that his skill is more valuable than someone else’s, or that someone else is doing less work and reaping the same benefit. And then that person will either violently revolt or withhold his services until he is compensated adequately. And there goes your system.
A physician, a ditchdigger, a baseball player, a schoolteacher, a policeman, a bricklayer, and a geologist all don’t make the same wages for a reason.
Now you’re really taking it into GD territory. Admit it. You just wanted to make this into a GD thread. 
I’ve always had this feeling that Capitalism just isn’t right. You always have major social inequalities caused by the distribution of wealth. If you are not smart enough to look out for yourself or climb the corporate ladder, then you are confined to a stressful existence. You are always in competition with others and someone always has to be at the bottom.
The thing that made me put up this pointless thread is that I’m currently helping to run a family business and seeing what bills a business has to pay dismays me. You have your GST, municipal business tax, income tax, matching contributions for employees, workers compensation, etc. On top of that you have pay for your business licence, alcohol licence, lawyer fees, food handling licence, etc. Then there are your wages and a whole boatload of other costs. I guess I’m just frustrated with all the bills we have to pay, yet we work so hard at running a family restaurant.
Now, I’m a pretty smart guy and am currently doing an internship at an engineering firm. In about a year, I will have a bachelor of science degree for engineering. That means I’m on track to be pretty high up on the social and corporate ladder. I just help out at the restaurant. But seeing my family work so hard at running a small business while getting minimal returns makes me question whether Capitalism is so great.
What about the people who don’t have my luck or the smarts to get ahead?
Red tape is independent of economic system, I am sure.
True, the free market doesn’t like small businesses. They could always try and join a chain though (Denny’s, Old Spaghetti Factory, etc.) depending on how many chain restaurants you have in your area.
Atheist. Thus I just read the words on the page and accept them at face value.
We’re not in GD, so that explanation is cool with me. I just wanted to make sure you weren’t taking a random snipe or something.
In Anarchy, everyone is at the bottom!
Income tax is the fairest way to fund Government.
What is wrong with local business tax?
Why shouldn’t businesses contribute to worker’s pensions?
Don’t you agree that people selling alcohol should be licensed?
Dnn’t you agree people handling food should be qualified?
Under capitalism, you can find people or firms to help you with your taxes, recruitment and advertising. They compete to be the best.
I think what is bugging you is that running a small business is hard work. That’s true. You are also in a highly competitive industry.
But you get to be your own boss, doing what you want to do. If you are really good, you can make a lot of money.
They don’t get to run a business. But they can still get menial jobs.
Perhaps you are yearning for socialism!
Communism is morally bankrupt because it denies the foundation of freedom: private property. If you don’t own anything, you can’t claim to control anything. If you can’t claim to control anything, you have no recourse when the group that does own it (the government) decides to take it. You have no privacy because your home and your methods of communication are not yours (telephones, computers, letters, diaries, and so on). You have no right to life or freedom from physical harm because your body is not your own. You have no right to not be a slave because your time and labor are not your own. Finally, on a more philosophical level, your ideas are not your own.
Capitalism, on the other hand, is based on the principle of free association between free people. Anyone can make deals based on what they lawfully own. From that foundation flows all of the other rights humans in civilized countries enjoy.
Capitalism is a “system” in the sense that gravity is a system. Capitalism exists naturally and follows natural laws. It wasn’t invented by anyone and will always exists as an abstract entity even if all of mankind abandons it for 1000 years. Every other systems tries to shunt that with varying degrees of success. We can work around gravity for a time but it takes more effort and ingenuity the longer and more blatant you do it. Likewise, a country can try to shun capitalism but once you move too far away, the only way to hold things up is through totalitarism. That is why communist governments always become dictatorships. They ignored natural laws and had to put in the most controlling type of government as a desperate measure to hold things together at all.
I’m an engineer. I do pretty well. There are other engineers who do better. There are some who do worse. I’ve known some marginal performers who play the system and rise over more talented, less political engineers. I’ve known a couple of real stinko engineers who were eventually weeded out.
I like to think that engineers perform a much more valuable service to society than quarterbacks or boy bands, yet I doubt that you’ll find any raking in those big bucks. Substitute almost any occupation for engineer and I think the comments hold true.
I suppose you could argue that capitalism isn’t fair. Then again life isn’t fair. Accidents happen. Good people make bad choices. One good storm can wipe out a person’s life work. One disease can wipe out many lives. <shrug> Life’s a crapshoot sometimes. All you can do is the best you can do and maybe it’ll work out. And maybe not. And in the end, we’re all worm food, no matter what our bank balance reads.
I know I had a point in there somewhere…