andrel <a_l### [at] hotmailcom> wrote:
> Don't get me wrong, some of my best friends are Americans. ;)
> It is just that your contribution is so full of typical right wing US 
> propaganda terminology. You may have a point but the way you phrase it 
> makes it hard for me to follow. It is just like talking to a Scotsman 
> and don't hear a word because he has such an interesting accent.

  Personally I think socialism (meaning that private property and private
enterpreneurship is banned, and everything is controlled by the government
and, in an ideal/utopistic situation, the government shares all capital
equally with all citizens) might be an enticing ideology because it's "fair"
(after all, it's unfair that some people can live in multi-million dollar
mansions, own one expensive sports car for every day of the week, and travel
regularly to the Bahamas in their own private jet, while so many people
are living in cardboard boxes on the streets). However, from a pragmatic
point of view socialism just doesn't work. It causes progress stagnation,
which ends up lessening everybody's quality of life in the long run.

  Capitalism endorses competition. People will strive for bettering their
own lives (to get rich, famous or otherwise in a better position in life).
While this sounds (and somewhat is) a sign of greed, in the grand scale of
things it's actually greed that benefits the society as a whole: By bettering
his own life, this person is pushing forward progress, indirectly bettering
everyone's life in average.

  Someone might want to get rich and famous by making a beneficial invention
or developing something useful in order to sell it for millions. If he
succeeds, he gets filthy rich (which was his goal), but as a side effect
the overall quality of the society got increased because now there's a new
invention which makes everyone's life easier.

  Socialism, on the other hand, deters innovation and progress. There's
nothing personal to be gained by making new inventions or bettering your
own quality of life. You can't sell your invention to others for money
because the government owns whatever you make. So why bother? There's nothing
to be gained, and everything to be lost: All your hard work will be
"hijacked" by the government and you get nothing.

  What people want is unreasonable. Basically they want to eat the cake and
keep it too: They want all the benefits of innovation and progress which
comes from competitive capitalism, but without the competitive capitalism,
so that everyone owns the same amount. This just doesn't work.

  It's not a coincidence that the best technological innovations are created
in capitalist countries which endorse free commerce and private ownership and
entrepreneurship.

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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