Quote Originally Posted by Raistlin
My source is irrelevent, as are all conclusions in a debate. Tell me, what is communism, then? What's wrong with my reasons? Is communism not "from each according to his ability, to each according to his need?" Does communism not put the "good of the people" and the "good of the community"(where it gets its name from) above the individual? Does communism not demand that each individual contribute "his fair share" to the community? Please, tell me where I'm wrong.

The problem with absolutely pure capitalism is that it in practice always puts the rich over the poor. They won't let the government make a policy that hurts them. FDA for instance is against pure capitalism. So are minimum wage laws, child labor laws, basic health and safety laws etc. Under pure cpitalism such laws could never possibly exist.
First off, child labor laws are not for or against capitalism. I concede the rest.
Secondly, capitalism only favors the rich if you deem that money is the standard with which you must judge a person's value.
Well, I guess I left you with a wrong impression here. What I was getting at was more how a society would end up seeing those with money vs. those who don't. Specifically the government. It always has and always will take money to get elected. So when you raise your "war chest" to go and convince people to vote for you, you will go to the rich people because they have the money. Of course they won't give you any if you work against their interests. As a result politicians will naturally favor causes that help the rich even if they hurt the poor.

Actually I would think child labor laws would be contrary to pure capitalism, because as I understand it, capitalism means the ability to sell your labor in any way you see fit. Thus having a minimum age before you could seek employment seems to me anti-capitalist. unless of course I'm missing something.

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On the other hand under communist systems, what you think is yours isn't up to and including your own body and mind. You can't protest an unfair policy without jail time. You just found the cure for cancer. Great! now it belongs to the People's Republic of Bendover, and the glorious state will distrubute the cure to the masses. Of course you won't get any reward for it. And you still will work in the same dirty old hospital as before.
I just have to say: The People's Republic of Bendover is brilliant. [quote]

glad you liked it.

Pure systems never work because people tend to try to get power for themselves and not worry about other people. So if you have a beautiful theory, it will never work. Societies just don't work that way. So the best solution seems to be in the middle somewhere.
Pure capitalism doesn't work because people hold that their lives are less meaningful without money, and more meaningful with it. People define their lives with external values - which devalues their life. If people viewed their lives as ends in and of themselves, than capitalism is the perfect system.
But at the end of the day without money, your life will be harder than with it. It isn't so much that a person sees dollar signs looking in the mirror, just that they understand that at the end of the month the grocery store and their landlord expect to see some form of currency rather than a warm fuzzy statement about how much of a developed person they are. It isn't a question of "I mean less to society because I'm poor", it's a question of practicallity.

I think what devalues human life is to have no connection to their own souls. That can happen even if you live in the forest hunting squirrels in a loincloth. Money has little to do with it.