If people were truely forward thinking, and appreciated that what goes around comes around, then I guess you could have a communist system that works. However it is true that people do need a real incentive to get them to work, paying everyone the same salary would lead to people seeking easy jobs. It's not enough to tell people that their effort is appreciated, they need a paycheck to see exactly how much it is appreciated.In defense of the whole idea of money I do think it's a neccessary invention. The way I see it, money is like a concrete time-delayed favour. If you lend someone a hand, at your own cost, then if they said, "Thanks, I'll repay the favour sometime." It would be difficult to remember exactly how much you owe, and it would be easy for people to pretend that they are owed more than they actually are. By giving someone an actual piece of paper, it's like saying that you acknowledge the debt, so that one dollar/pound/franc etc becomes equivalent to one favour. Even if you aren't repayed by that person specifically, you know that what you've done will be rewarded eventually.
However money does have it's down side. It encourages hoarding. If you are rich, that translates as being owed lots of favours, and it becomes easier to make more money. Thus the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.
I've never been taught anything about these political systems, everything I wrote has come from conversations with mates. If I've got definitions of Capitalism and Communism innacurate I would appreciate being corrected. I freely admit that in some areas I am politically ignorant, but by joining in with this discussion I am hoping to change that.
I'd like to stress that at the moment I'm not completely in favour of any one particular system. I'm going to sit on the fence until I've heard more of the pro's and con's, and learned more about the subject.
Any feedback?
Stu,
