HOW DO WE UNKNOWINGLY LIVE IN A COMMUNIST CAPITALIST SOCIETY?
CAPITALISM IDEOLOGY (Decentralization)
Capitalism ideology says “from each according to his ability, to each according to his capital” which simply means if you have a lot of capital then you can generate a lot of money.
The name itself suggests capital centered society where money is king. In this ideology, the meaning of “money begets money” which means money is made from money.
This ideology also incorporates “poverty begets poverty” which means poorer people are getting more poor day-by-day and the gap between the rich and poor is widening.
Adam Smith is considered to be the father of Capitalusm. In 1776 he wrote a book called The Wealth of Nations, where all the aspects of capitalist ideology is dicussed and eloborated.
This Ideology supports privatization, free market, competition, and basic rights for all. It gives equal opportunity to everyone and makes them believe they can be Bill Gates or Elon musk someday through the power of hard work and persistence.
Everything is not privately owned in capitalism rather something things are run on a cooperative basis as well which follows the ideology of communism. Capitalism gives the freedom of trade and business with less interference from the government.
Capitalism directly doesn’t apply pressure on you rather it has many indirect ways through which the quality of products and services can be made superior through the process of fair competition, through this many duopolies in certain sectors have emerged. These people work and specialize in certain areas and they are paid accordingly, this results in a rapid increase in productivity and efficiency.
Capitalism is a ladder which everybody tries to climb to avoid getting exploited but the more somebody climbs the more they start exploiting others.
In Capitalism, the extra money that you generate by making somebody else’s life easier and their time worth while, is simply called profit.
SOME FAILURES OF CAPITALISM
- Monopolies of Corporations:
Generally, what happens is that smaller businesses merge to make larger corporations and ultimately that entity dominates the sector of the market creating a monopoly.
A prime example of this method is Google, they have purchased so many companies that it was impossible for them to operate in a clear manner so they made another entity that controls their other companies. They work on the philosophy that if you can’t beat them buy them and as a matter of fact it has worked so far.
2.Societal and Environmental Destruction:
There is no ban on what anyone can sell and advertise, this has simply led to people choosing the products which were more popular in the society rather than which was more beneficial for the society.
People choose to eat at McDonald’s rather than having a nutrition-rich meal because it is more popular in society.
The environmental damage that humans have done in the past 200 years was not seen for the past 2000 years.
3. Hypocrisy of Consumerism:
Capitalism shows consumers that it is more successful if you show you are successful rather than actually being successful. This leads to people buying expensive stuff just to impress others which virtually raises their standard of living.
This is fake consumerism that is shown to society by big corporations and these big corporations want you to believe it blindly.
All in all, capitalism has been a success as compare to communism, if we look at the recent modern history.
COMMUNISM IDEOLOGY (Centralisation)
Communism ideology says “from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs” which simply means everybody regardless of the class or gender or ability is same in the society.
The name itself suggests everything is common amongst everyone. As a matter of fact, the ideology of communism goes way back in history, it even existed 1000 years ago. The people living the lives of hunter-gatherers usually practiced this ideology.
The concept of desire doesn’t exist in this society rather the concept of needs is looked upon.
This Ideology is a money-less, class-less, and state-less society and it is a place where the means of production are owned by everyone. No private ownership is allowed at all. Free education, healthcare would be given to all. The concept of inherited wealth doesn’t exist. Sharing is caring is the main motto of the ideology. The best part about this manifesto is that free healthcare and education would be provided for all.
Basically, it would have equality in as many cases as possible.
Carl Marx is the father of communism. He wrote a book in 1848 called “Communist Manifesto” where all the aspects of communist ideology is dicussed and eloborated.
The flag bearer of a communist society in the 20th century was USSR.
Utopia is a perfect hypothetical society which doesn’t exist in reality, just like a perfect communist of capitalist society.
WHY DID THIS IDEOLOGY FAIL?
It started with the government regaining a little control of the things in the society. First of all the factories were nationalized, which means that they belong to the government and not to the people which is against the ideal communist ideology.
And slowly the Communist leaders didn’t accept any criticism against their government which led to them regaining more power in the society. Then people were deprived of basic rights and the freedom of speech against the government was taken away.
Sooner the next leaders tried to gain more and more control over the people by reducing their power and existence in the society by abolishing their rights and freedom of speech completely. The ideologies of these leaders were getting more diverted from the ideal communist ideology.
And eventually, the inevitable happened as these leaders sooner or later became a dictator and the form of government converted to dictatorship. Adolf Hitler is the prime example of this.
