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For example a factory through the power of the gov, being able to call the police to force workers to work. That same factory taking pay from employees when equipment breaks or whenever the factory feels like it. Colluding with other employers to blackmail employees into continuing working. Not paying for weeks, even months with zero consequence because there are now laws that require it, or are seldom enforced, etc, etc. I mean hell, slavery existed in the US under capitalism.
You are viewing things through the lenses of today, with our heavily regulated market economy. Back then in many countries, it was not like this at all.
You honestly think if everything was rosy that people would have tossed that all aside and engaged in violent revolutions to install a new system? If people are happy, they will live under a dictatorship for all they care, many do even now and are fine with it, and many live quite nice.
It’s not capitalism once you employ violence such as government. Regulation is violence which is no longer capitalism. You do understand what regulation is, right? Regulation is slavery where the government puts a gun on everyone’s head and force them to do certain things rather than simply punish those who do harm to others.
Is forcing workers to work still free trade? Free trade means trade under their free will. Again, property right and free trade are not evil. Nowhere it says that it’s OK to harm other people.
Anyone with a minimal amount of intelligence can see that such a system is doomed to be a miserable failure from the start.
Up until the fall of the Berlin Wall the CIA considered the USSR to be sustainable. George Kennan is considered a visionary and statesman for writing down the above common sense on official letterhead.
It just goes to show how stupid professional thinkers, especially in government, can be.
Throughout history there have always been those ruled by envy and greed, and themselves infested by incompetence and slot. There are always those that look at what others have earned and produced, and tried to justify ways to take it without paying for it. They ignore the fact that business success takes a great deal of intelligence, effort and even a certain amount of luck. They ignore the fact that most successful businesses are started by those that have tried, invested everything and failed multiple times before hitting it big.
Those greedy people look at successful people and justify taking from them for themselves. What they fail to consider is that there are always people that are poorer or even less successful that will in turn demand that what they have be taken and redistributed.
Communism by definition is a race to the bottom, one where every person is equally impoverished and miserable. Such a system benefits the lowest of society-they get what they have through no effort, and get as much as smart, hard working people have that bust their butts. Thing is-hard working, intelligent people figure out very quickly that such a system does absolutely nothing for them. That the harder they work-the more they are forced to work-for no compensation. From each according to their abilities means that the able suffer the most. To each according to their needs means the neediest, not the hardest working or most productive, get the most.
The exception to being impoverished is the leadership and government workers under a communist system. Communism requires a totalitarian leadership. All means of production and distribution are owned by the government. Any private interactions must be controlled and banned.
Anyone with a minimal amount of intelligence can see that such a system is doomed to be a miserable failure from the start. Yet even now, nearly 140 years after his death, the evils that Karl Marx proposed are still embraced by some that see such a system as desirable. It takes a great deal of self loathing to do so.
It’s not the intelligence. Plenty of people want to enslave others and they see communism is their ticket to power.
Which part of capitalism is evil? Property right or free trade?
If you have someone living in a mansion, with servants and expensive cars and exotic vacations, and in the same community there are people who are homeless, hungry and can't afford basic medical care, there is something deeply evil about that.
It’s not the intelligence. Plenty of people want to enslave others and they see communism is their ticket to power.
You're not wrong-the loudest proponents and instigators of totalian, communist societies do indeed see communism as a way of assuming power. But not all do-many actually believe the mindless tripe those people spew. They are referred to as "useful idiots"-by none other than Vlad Lenin.
If you have someone living in a mansion, with servants and expensive cars and exotic vacations, and in the same community there are people who are homeless, hungry and can't afford basic medical care, there is something deeply evil about that.
How so?
Remember in a capitalist society aka free society, people CHOOSE to live in poverty.
Reading through 5 pages of replies, I am actually pleasantly surprised. A few ignorant comments, but mostly intelligent replies to the question. You don't see that much on this forum.
that didn't last long. The ignorant comments are popping out really loud.
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that didn't last long. The ignorant comments are popping out really loud.
