- Capitalism and Alternatives -

USSR was not capitalist

Posted by: Michael Owens ( Capitalism For All, USA ) on July 06, 1997 at 09:14:36:

In Reply to: co-operative, and adaptable posted by Red Deathy on July 05, 1997 at 23:14:41:

> OK- I agree with you - the class that makes the money aught to keep it - but
> all weatlhth is produced by the workers, and appropriated by the owners - no
> one can earn several million dollars of their own work - it always has to be
> at the espense of others - capitalism is organised theft....

Really? Organized theft? Let me ask u which scenario is theft. A man willingly walks into a store and uses his own money to buy WINDOWS95, therefore adding to Bill Gates' millions (Im sure you wretch at the thought of his capital posessing name), or the government taking money from someone who has earned it so that it can then be distributed to someone who has not earned it? Notice the difference in terms: one has someone GIVING the other has someone TAKING. Noe tell me, which word is more synonomous with theft?

> communism failed in Russia because Lenin's theory of the revolution was
> misguided - the revolution must be carried out by the working class istelf-
> not a revolutionary vanguard party that operates an effective coup d'etat.

Fine, but its still another excuse. Aply this argument to my pilgrim example and see that it still fails. Even when the working class implements and administers the economic policy it still fails!

> I think that its a symptom of Leninism, and proof that communism cannot work
> in isolated countries, but only in a world wide revolution...

You completelt miss the point! Why would worldwide implementation change human instinct from achieving self goals to achieving community goals? It wouldn't, and the very idea is ludicrous.

I don't undertand (simpleton me). Give me a scenario of what you want in a government and tell me how it's different than Plymouth Rock.

> The Soviet Union was not a socialist country - It was capitalist. Yawn.

Oh come on! Do I have to get out a dictionary? A capitalist country is not one where the government owns property and gives out the paychecks. Nor is it one where the government runs industries, and names everything "THE PEOPLE'S" this and "THE PEOPLE'S" that. A capitalist state is one in which the government is only in existence to preserve economic and social freedoms, AND GET THE HELL OUT OF THE ECONOMY'S WAY! USSR did not do that! Maybe the money did end up in the upper classes, but it doesn't change the fact that there wer food shortages and other major problems because the people did not feel the need to work as they could not see the direct benefits of their labor. The government always gave them that check, even if it wasn't for very much, so what was the need to continue working?

> Thats ture - so lets all own the world - instead of a group of people whose
> only real goal is to attain capital growth...

in the United States land does not belong to a special class. my mom makes $25,000 a year, my Dad doesn't have a job (I am but a young child, only 15) and we own 64 acres of land (a lot by any any residential standards). We are far from being part of the upper class. Capitalism allows people of all classes to own land, all they have to do is work! That way they feel the responsobility and maintain that property.

> Yes, humans have instincts - to be co-operative, and to be adaptable...

But not to look out for themselves? Tell me, when was the last time you took your neigbors car to be washed because it neede it more than yours? Wouldn't any unselfish, enlightened person like you have to do that? Or when was the last time you went and bought groceries for your neighbor because he/she neede them more than you? More than likely it wasn't just yesterday. That is because you feel the instinctive needs to satisfy yourself before satisfying others. Sometimes satisfying yourself involves satisfying others, but not always. Follow your instinct, it has worked for humanity this far.

Michael

scared I'll be president? Why, because you are afraid I may be proven wrong? Or maybe you are more afraid that I'll be proven right!



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