Communism recognizes that people are greedy, and distributes goods and wealth evenly to ensure that everyone gets some. It fails because it doesn't account for the fact that people are lazy, and won't do the work required to be a healthy society without motivation.
Capitalism recognizes that people are lazy and rewards people for working hard. It fails because it doesn't account for the fact that people are greedy and will hoard wealth, causing many to go without.
Both systems fail because they don't account for the fundamental flaw of Mankind: people are assholes, and no matter what system you use, someone will fuck it up just because they can. I don't have a system that accounts for this. When I think of one, I will start a revolution. Don't hold your breath however, because I am too lazy to start anything.
Capitalism can be pretty great when it's restrained by laws to help keep things balanced. Back in the 1950s the highest tax bracket in the U.S. was around 90%, IIRC, and they were more serious about breaking up monopolies and "trust busting". Unions were pretty strong. Minimum wages were reasonable. Things weren't perfect, but they were pretty good.
The problem is that powerful corporations and the wealthy seem to eventually find ways to get rid of or disable the restraints, to tilt things in their favor. And they just keep tilting things further and further in their favor. They find ways to make most unions go away. Allow monopolies to persist. To push more and more of the tax burden on the non-rich and non-corporations. Prevent the minimum wage from keeping up with inflation. They demonize government handouts to individual people, while corporations get huge subsidies and bailouts constantly.
In the U.S. capitalism is like a garden, where the weeds somehow convinced the owner that the garden would be better if the weeds were never pulled out or restrained in any way. The weeds (the rich and corporations) are now choking out the rest of us.
Other countries have figured it out. But in the U.S. a large percentage of the population has bought into the propaganda that restraining capitalism = socialism = communism = evil. It's crazy and maddening how many people believe it.
Yeah, I don’t know how can people believe the US is still a capitalist system nowadays, free market competition is a joke and monopolies/oligopolies are pretty much the norm on almost every sector that matters, regulatory capture is rampant and the consumer pretty much as no longer any say beyond choosing between Coke or Pepsi.
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u/PurestCringe 8h ago
Every system fails when exposed to human greed and pride.
Capitalism is just the one that fails the least badly.