Capitalism and communism are at the opposite end of the economic system spectrum. Their characteristics are totally different and they have been rival systems since the beginning of World War I. Examining both of them will help us understand how they differ.
Capitalism is an economic system in which private individuals and business firms carry on the production and exchange of goods and services through prices and markets. Karl Marx, the founder of communism, introduced the word Capitalism. Its origins are primarily European. In Europe is where capitalism evolved during the 19th century. Until World War I capitalism was the most dominant economic system in the world, challenged by none. Capitalism has 4 basic characteristics. The first being that the production facilities, land, and capital were privately owned. Secondly the market was controlled by the interaction between buyer and seller. The third characteristic was that the people were free to pursue their own self-interests. By doing this they can seek maximum gain from their resources. Finally the system must have a minimum amount of government supervision. This theory believed that if there were competition the market would be self-regulating. Communism is derived from ancient resources such as Plato’s Republic and early Christian villages. In the early 19th century communism was a response of the poor and dislocated to modern capitalism. The main movement of communism began with the introduction of Marx’s Communist Manifesto. Communism is a concept where the community rather than the individual own the major resources and means of production. Societies like this share everything according to need.
The Essay on Capitalism World System
For the past six hundred years a culture and a society, dedicated for the most part to development and trade as the ultimate source of well being, began to expand all over the world. In a great number of ways this development, capitalism, became the most successful culture and society the world has ever seen. Capitalism ascended as a successful social means. It was successful as it ...
One similarity that both of these systems have are that they both really started by papers made by philosophers. Capitalism really gained power after Adam Smith wrote The Doctrine of Adam Smith. Smith believed that there was a “natural” economic order, which would function properly with low state control. However it was his belief that industry was not unproductive. It was through the ideas in Smith’s doctrine that accelerated capitalism through the 20th century. Modern Communism was founded on the writings of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. They analyzed contemporary society and modern production methods that produced slums in the midst of abundance. They then believed that every social system in the past were a device used by the rich to increase their personal power. However their main belief was that capitalism was flawed and bound to destroy itself. Nonetheless they were wrong and capitalism has never fully collapsed.
So far in the history of both of these economic systems, capitalism has been the most successful. Communism has had to many problems in developing through the troubles of the former Soviet Union. During this time capitalism exploded making the United States economic giants and the most powerful country in the world. The main problem with communism was that Stalinism did not represent the communist utopia that Marx and Engels envisioned. This kept on three decades after the death of Stalin. During this time capitalism exploded making the United States economic giants and the most powerful country in the world. Though the capitalist economy had some troubles during the 1930s, it has been consistently flexible. This has allowed for smooth economic growth. The flexibility of capitalism also allows it to achieve high employment and stable prices, two of capitalism’s main goals. So overall in the past century both systems have had ups and downs but capitalism has succeeded in many more ways than communism, and will continue to do so.
The Essay on Capitalism V. Communism
As the feudal system in Europe began crumbling with the dawn of the Industrial Revolution a void was created in the European social and economic structure, Scottish philosopher Adam Smith took it upon himself to fill this void and in 1776 published The Wealth of Nations; just as Newtons Principia Mathematica laid the foundation for modern physics so to did Adams work lay the foundation for modern ...
