Monday, September 28, 2009
Capitalism and Communism
Wow, haven't touched this thing for awhile. But time to put more stuff in it.
So one thing that people have been talking about is how capitalism has failed and also about socializing healthcare. So it all revolves around the notion of property and who owns stuff. Capitalism is an ideology espousing private ownership and the ideal that anyone can own stuff. Communism is an ideology where everyone jointly owns everything. These ideas have been modified by political systems somewhat. For example, slavery fits very well into Capitalism, but democratic tendencies point us to a system where each person 'owns' themselves.
These two ideologies were taken up by military power blocks who fashioned their geopolitical struggle as a struggle between these two ideologies. It is very unfortunate because (a) geopolitical power struggles are unforuntate and (b) we tend to associate these ideas with an 'our-side, your-side' mentality. That said pretty much every society using both the ideas on Communism and Capitalism to address the concept of ownership.
For example, the United States uses the principles of Communism when it comes to things like the National Park system (as pointed out by Ken Burns) and the U.S. military. These things belong to all the people and are managed by the government, essentially a trust that governs our communal interests and property. Okay, my statement that the military is communist may confuse you. But I think you would have to agree that we, the American people, jointly owns the military. We own the planes, the tanks, the bases, and so on. You could say that the government owns it, but the government is a group we have chosen to manage it for us. Actually ownership belongs to the people. You might think, of course it is this way. How could it be different?
Feudalism is a system where military force is owned by individuals and they enter into contracts with other groups to form a larger military force. A knight owns his horse, armor, and weapons. He makes an agreement to work for a king, but the military is essentially owned by private individuals. A U.S. soldier doesn't own bases, tanks, or guns. Another way we could have a non-communally owned military is a mercenary army. Companies like Blackwater provide military force for money. You could potentially imagine that the whole U.S. army goes private and the government basically pays them to defend the country.
So once you recognize that almost every society uses both personal and communal property, you can start to ask the questions like what are the benefits of private property? What are the benefits of communal property? In what situations should we use one system over another? If we have a military system owned by everyone and a healthcare system owned by individuals what are the characteristics that make the military better for public owdership and healthcare better for private ownership?
So one thing that people have been talking about is how capitalism has failed and also about socializing healthcare. So it all revolves around the notion of property and who owns stuff. Capitalism is an ideology espousing private ownership and the ideal that anyone can own stuff. Communism is an ideology where everyone jointly owns everything. These ideas have been modified by political systems somewhat. For example, slavery fits very well into Capitalism, but democratic tendencies point us to a system where each person 'owns' themselves.
These two ideologies were taken up by military power blocks who fashioned their geopolitical struggle as a struggle between these two ideologies. It is very unfortunate because (a) geopolitical power struggles are unforuntate and (b) we tend to associate these ideas with an 'our-side, your-side' mentality. That said pretty much every society using both the ideas on Communism and Capitalism to address the concept of ownership.
For example, the United States uses the principles of Communism when it comes to things like the National Park system (as pointed out by Ken Burns) and the U.S. military. These things belong to all the people and are managed by the government, essentially a trust that governs our communal interests and property. Okay, my statement that the military is communist may confuse you. But I think you would have to agree that we, the American people, jointly owns the military. We own the planes, the tanks, the bases, and so on. You could say that the government owns it, but the government is a group we have chosen to manage it for us. Actually ownership belongs to the people. You might think, of course it is this way. How could it be different?
Feudalism is a system where military force is owned by individuals and they enter into contracts with other groups to form a larger military force. A knight owns his horse, armor, and weapons. He makes an agreement to work for a king, but the military is essentially owned by private individuals. A U.S. soldier doesn't own bases, tanks, or guns. Another way we could have a non-communally owned military is a mercenary army. Companies like Blackwater provide military force for money. You could potentially imagine that the whole U.S. army goes private and the government basically pays them to defend the country.
So once you recognize that almost every society uses both personal and communal property, you can start to ask the questions like what are the benefits of private property? What are the benefits of communal property? In what situations should we use one system over another? If we have a military system owned by everyone and a healthcare system owned by individuals what are the characteristics that make the military better for public owdership and healthcare better for private ownership?
