Socialism and Capitalism, Till Death Do They Part?

One thinks of socialism and capitalism as being at war with each other throughout the 20th century, with capitalism coming out on top in 1991, with the fall of the Soviet Union. 

This is not really an accurate look at the history of these two important theories. 

Of the pair, capitalism has the longer and more politically successful history, where as socialism has found its home most often in academia and in the marketplaces of Third World nations from 1940 to 1990. 

Capitalism was born out of a reaction to the policy of mercantilism, which was a popular theory that was itself developed by the economic advances of the Renaissance. 

Long before the war between these two systems, mercantilism held that the rate of trade never changed and that nations should export heavily in favor of gold and silver bullion. 

Imports should be avoided at all times.

This led to heavy governmental interference in international business. 

It soon became apparent to many economists and other thinkers that the merchants of Europe would do better if they were left alone by lawmakers. 

The French thinkers advocating this hands-off, or “laissez faire” policy were called, oddly enough, the Physiocrats. 

Adam Smith encountered them while composing his tome, “On the Wealth of Nations”, and borrow several ideas from them.

The conflict between socialism and capitalism actually begins with Smith and his overarching philosophy of wealth, free markets and capital, because socialism is a broad theory that was already defined before Smith began writing. 

History is full of stories about idealistic communities (especially groups that emulated the early Christians) that amended the property rights of individuals in their memberships, usually with bad results.

No Matter what System You Live Under, Greed is God

The history of socialism is the story of economists trying to come to grips with the horrors of the Industrial Revolution by bringing some of the idealist communities back from the fog of times and into the world as islands of sanity of heath in a sea of poverty and starvation.

For it is no secret that when “The Two Isms” went head to head in the 1800’s, capitalism won and poverty devoured a generation of Europeans. 

It is sad to think of the scorn heaped upon socialists by capitalists and communists alike. 

For the capitalist, the socialist is weak, following the Beatitudes of Christ to a point of ridiculousness. 

Socialism is not the Answer

For the Communist, the socialist is a flip-flopper, one who knows what path to take but who only steps down it one yard per day before running off, terrified of the dangers involved in moving forward to the Sacred goal of the Dictatorship of the Proletariat.

Perhaps socialism and capitalism have both benefited from the Communist tendency towards absolutism. 

They reeds kneeled before the wind, but the oak was toppled.

Communism claimed to itself a Machivellian flexibility, but when it was challenged by troubled times, it could not bend.