What is better: Communism or Capitalism?

You cannot call it capitalism. Our system is just more recycled socialism, the banking sector especially.

 

How can it be a "free-market economy" when socialist ideals are "enforced" by unions and the state?

 

That's absurd. Of course they have a free market economy, supported through an educated population based on democratically decided worker's rights. The difference between a free market economy and a market economy is rather negligible.

The strong tradition of trade unions in both countries is socialistic as a counter-measure against exploitation of workers.

 

Because supply and demand still determines the price of commodities. The unions represent the interests of the workers and companies through intervention measures. The state distributes goods and services through taxation. Neither trade unions nor taxation infringe upon the ability to have a free market.

 

How does a nation become powerful from "wartime profiteering"?

Wow. What universe are you living in? The central bank, the FDIC, the SEC, Fannie and Freddie, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, the DEA, the ATF, the FBI, 99 weeks of unemployment insurance, bailouts, drug wars, the NLRB, Federal collective bargaining laws, minimum wage laws, etc.

Which has what to do with capitalism or free markets?

 

It's not "supply and demand" if both are being artificially manipulated by statist interventions into the market. Supply and demand must arise organically in order to work properly.

"Intervention measures"? Is that a statism euphemism for "force or the threat of force"?

And, of course, the state has always been efficient and equitable in the allocation of goods and services.

It does if the existence of the unions are predicated upon force or the threat of force, or if the taxes are collected and allocated according to the arbitrary and authoritarian dictates of direct democracy.

 

It doesn't work on a large scale.

 

Capitalism is wonderful when you're rich. Communism is a better option if you're poor.
Capitalism has failed for most of America. The wealthy will disagree. We can't all be company owners, CEO's or Wall street winners. Some of us have to work for a living.

 

The Free Market is a type of Market Economy. Just like Capitalism is a type of Market Economy. A Free Market is a type of market economy based on supply and demand with little or no government intervention. That is not in any way what Germany or Norway has.

If it's a Free Market then workers aren't being exploited. And in what way is trade unions socialistic?

 

Oh no! You have to work. Poor baby!

So, just so we are clear, you are arguing against capitalism because you are lazy and you don't feel like working.

 

1. The US has a rich history of making business "safe" for America through wartime profiteering. The easiest example is the huge profits that private contractors like blackwater have made in Iraq and Afghanistan. Not to mention the oil in these countries, which is the reason we were there in the first place. A nation becomes rich in this way by using global hegemony to influence governments and place politicians with a favorable view of the US in power through wars of aggression and coercion.


2. These are all different institutions. Hardly any of the institutions you listed have anything to do with a "safety net". The few that are part of the safety net were created during the great depression to stabilize the economy after the first collapse of capitalism in the US. Others are institutions that protect the wealthy. Still others are institutions meant to assist the police. Social security is paid for by citizens, but will never last past another generation, the money is spent.

3. Obviously that the power of lobbyists and corporations in this country has been such that we now have a government and media that is "in the pockets" of the wealthiest Americans and as such can no longer be considered a democratic republic.

 

You wouldn't consider Germany and Norway a "large scale"?

 

No...I'm arguing against it because someone sucking 500 times the average worker's pay, isn't earning ANYTHING, for example.

The wealthiest in America DO NOT work. Quit trying to equate mega wealth with work. The two have nothing to do with each other at that level. We're supposed to believe the super wealthy work. THEY DON'T. They simply take.

 

1. Both countries are based on supply and demand, there is little government regulation in terms of commodities produced, other than regulations to ensure the safety of the population, which is reasonable.

2. Workers can be exploited in a free market. Because capital dictates who can or cannot open a business. Ever heard of the "company store"? This is the result of free market exploitation. Although maybe your point (as I am assuming it) is that if there were no regulations at all, anyone could participate in the market...which is true, but couldn't exist past a small village. Unions are a cornerstone of socialist ideology along with worker's councils to create an egalitarian society which affords workers the true value of their labor. The very first union in the United States was the Industrial Workers of the World or the IWW, which was based in socialist and anarcho-syndicalist principals. The simple fact that unions stand up for workers rights makes them socialistic, as socialism by definition is based in the struggle for worker rights and egalitarianism.

 

Please show us the infallible communist nation with unparalleled prosperity. It's never existed, the Chinese people work for balls of rice and it has been argued that they are even more capitalistic than America at this point. They surely do not regulate the environment or worker safety or compensation as much as America.

The OP's point was that both systems are likely to be compromised, and if you read his website you see that he's pointing to more widespread options and decision making.

Centralization of power is the ultimate destroyer of nations. The capitalists use collective techniques to screw the people, the communists confiscate all wealth and power for the Dear Leader.

 

Not compared to America in the sense that we have a huge country and a multicultural society. We've seen that here, people freeload a lot. We have a lot of problems with ethnics divisions and discord among the ethnic groups. With a population of around 300 million, fraud has been a BIG problem. We have so many who just want to milk the system.

 

There is a lot more regulation than that.

Capital doesn't dictates who can open a business. Government does. If anyone can open a business anyone will in a free market. Only government impedes business with rules and regulations.

 

There is no infallible system or nation. There has never been a communist society because there has never been a classless society as Marx described in the Communist Manifesto.

 

Germany has around 83 million people, not exactly small. It also has a diverse population. The "milk the system" thing is a myth in general when you look at statistics. The people truly milking the system are in America's bloated military industrial complex.

 

Of course capital dictates who can open a business. Without capital you cannot invest. Not to mention that with no government intervention, there would be no property rights, which makes the argument for a pure market infeasible in a modern industrial society. Regulations will not impede business as no matter what people need commodities and they will therefor be profitable. Taxation and regulation are merely part of the overhead a business must incur, just like raw material, energy and labor expenses must be factored into a business model.

 

Look up the word "capital." You're using it wrong.

The Rule of Law protects Property Rights. Government interventionism gives people the very authority for people to violate someone else's property right.

They don't have to incur anything. Those jobs simply won't exist.

 

1. "Financial capital can refer to money used by entrepreneurs and businesses to buy what they need to make their products or provide their services or to that sector of the economy based on its operation, i.e. retail, corporate, investment banking, etc." How was I using it wrong?

2. The rule of law protects property. So does environmental regulation. If a factory is allowed to pollute a river or soil, the toxic chemicals will invariably ruin someone else's property and their ability to operate within the free system. An example is a leather factory that dumps chemicals into the ground and the underground water carries the chemicals to farm land and poisons the vegetables. This is an indirect way that regulation protects people. The "rule of law" still needs to be paid through taxation.

3. Your last statement is a little esoteric. What jobs don't exist?

 

300 million people having the greatest quality of life any civilization has ever offered, or 43 million bodies?

Hmm, I think the former is better, even if slightly.

 

I still don't follow your logic. How, exactly, does our nation become more powerful because Blackwater profits from war?

Complete nonsense.

No boon for U.S. firms in Iraq oil deal auction

I see. So, Iraq and Afghanistan are actually making us richer. Do I have that right?

You also said something about "deregulation". Obviously, that is a complete fantasy. Our economy is one of the most heavily taxed and heavily regulated in the world.

It wasn't a collapse of capitalism. It was a failure of economic central planning, just like this last meltdown.

Indeed, which is why they must be abolished.

Meant to assist them in the criminal violation of our natural and Constitutional rights.

You don't have to pay into SS in order to be eligible for it, and plenty of people draw out more money than they paid in.

Yup.

Which is why we must decentralize power back to the states and the people.

 

You didn't say financial capital. You merely said capital. In economics, capital are goods.

Environmental regulations doesn't keep factories from polluting. Property Rights do. Whoever owns a particular property has an incentive to protect it and keep it clean.

Any industry with taxes or regulations.