Differences between Capitalism and Socialism

¶ … Politics

There have been three main systems of government that have persisted from the beginning of the 20th century through the present. Of course, those three methods would be communism, socialism and capitalism. This report will address a number of pertinent questions when it comes to this topic. Answers will include why some systems are pilloried, why some systems are seen as superior and how both of these lead to the ebb and flow of how governments are structured and react given economic troubles, war and so forth. While no single system is perfect, there are those that tout the \"best solution\" based on a number of justifications and reasons.

As for why socialism is seen as discoursing individual initiative, the common reason for this belief is that people will be prone to being less engaged, less motivated and less self-sufficient if they are going to receive financial, healthcare and other assistance irrespective of what they do nor do not know on their own. For example, it would be common to think that people with a non-work income of sufficient amount will be less inclined to get a job because they are getting money without doing any work. A common real-world example of this would be unemployment. Indeed, many people assert that necessity and need is what spurs people to act. In other words, if someone has 99 weeks of unemployment left, they will be less likely to act that someone that has 99 hours of unemployment left.

As far as how socialist and capitalist governments would differ when it comes to unemployment, a capitalist government would be more prone to insist that the person needs to find a new job and restore their income. A socialist system would be more prone to focus on keeping that person \"above water\" when it comes to their life expenses, their family and so forth. To be sure, there is no government worth noting that is entirely one way or another. Indeed, no sane person would argue that the United States is anything other than a capitalist nation. However, the presence of unemployment insurance in that country would prove that they are not entirely willing and able to just leave people high and dry if they are unemployed for whatever reason (Diffen, 2016; Perlo, 2016).

When it comes to healthcare and providing it for every citizen, this is a mixed bag. Healthcare is very important and many people see it as a right. At the same time, this is not something that exists in the Constitution. Even so, the Constitution was written in a day before health insurance and modern society even existed. The author of this report holds that people with an inability to afford it should get help (and they do). However, the private sector does a good job and getting people covered when they want to buy coverage and this should be left alone. If anything, the government should just buy people private healthcare insurance if they need it rather than making a new bureaucracy. As for whether a dictatorship is necessary for the existence of a communist society, the basic answer is \"yes\" because telling people what they can use their business for, what they are allowed to do for a living, what they own, what they do not known and so forth is not something an average person is going to take lying down. It would generally take threats and oppression to enforce that and that is what many to most communist countries have done to one degree or another. Just a few examples would be Cuba, Venezuela (especially during the reign of Hugo Chavez) and the USSR (Begg, 2016).