In Reply to: Anyone's who's seen a history book wiil pick capitalism posted by Andrew on June 27, 1996 at 12:39:38:
> Let me restate my point a little more clearly so the intellectually challenged will be able to understand. Certainly free-market democratic capitalism is not perfect, but throughout history, all the alternatives have proven to be unspeakably violent and inevitably unstainable. And in deferance to your massacre analogy - >atrocities occur in all countries - the scale of which is undeniably lower (by several orders of magnitude) in free market democracies than in communist or socialist systems. No-one with a pulse can deny that. You want to compare poverty levels? I'll put Harlem up against Calcutta any time.
> So to summarize: There is no perfect political or economic system (a reflection more of the imperfection of Human Beings than a lack of effort) Given the choices, however, anyone who has ever so much as seen a history book will pick free market democratic captialism without so much as a second thought. And, I can't believe I >just wasted more valuable on-line time.Coming from the United States you should have more sense, or is that the problem. It is not entirely your fault however for your bias towards free-market economics as it is widely espoused through every media form in your country. A country so convinced of the blessings of free-market enterprise it through no less a method of force other than killings, tortures, kidnappings, mysterious "dissappearances" and the terroism of any form of popular opposition to free-market economics, it attempts to replicate its own "egalitarian democracy" which it enjoys so fulfillingly at home. Your country, which is such an idyllic model of democracy, pursues any method needed to convince other countries of the benefits of free-market capitalist democracies. As the Sandinistas whose little positive reforms were destroyed by the U.S. sponsored regime in Nicaragua will testify. Perhaps there has been much violence in countries under "socialist" or "communist rule. However are these countries as much socialist as they are forms of state capitalism where a central body decides everything for everyone and any visible opposition distinguishable from that of the governments is quickly quashed. Your country's government does exactly the same thing only in a more subtle and more "democratic" way. In short, no system which is fundamentally based on competition or alternatively the ideas of a small minority of ruling class elites can offer its members a fair and just environment in which to live. Capitalism is both of these undeniably. Any alternative which is built upon providing all members of society with its needs and offers them some significant degree of decision-making ability has to prevail over your favoured choice of free-market economics.
None.