Is capitalism the biggest failure in human history?

Its been around pretty much since the dawn of civilisation, and yet still a huge portion of the world live in squalor, and even the prosperous countries have always had underprivaleged citizens.

Admin warning to all


keep it clean and don't start insulting each other to prove you are right. Make arguments based on facts and respect other ppl's opinion.


if this is going to turn out into another flame treads (like all the previous communism vs. capitalism treads we've had) this is going to get locked faster then you can say "omgweneedgovernmentintervention"


another thing, PCP and RL communism are not the same



edit: pertamaxxxx!!!!!

Although I disagree with capitalism, I would not say it is a failure. I'm all in favour of the mixed economy where both capitalist and interventionist features are applied in the economy.

I think capitalism is the oldest system there is. It's also the most human system. Granted, it's far from perfect and it's evil and dirty system, but imo it's the best since it fits the most our corrupted nature and way of thinking.

I would love to believe in communism, I would like nothing more then for it to work, but I know it never will. It never will due to us humans not being able to share and look beyond our own greed.

shadow wrote:I would love to believe in communism, I would like nothing more then for it to work, but I know it never will. It never will due to us humans not being able to share and look beyond our own greed.

Now I do agree with this. Utopian Communism is an amazing ideal, but sadly, it will never work. Having said this, I disagree that it is because of an inherent greed in humanity however. Some people are more greedy than others and unfortunately they bring down the rest of humanity.

malta_1990 wrote:

shadow wrote:I would love to believe in communism, I would like nothing more then for it to work, but I know it never will. It never will due to us humans not being able to share and look beyond our own greed.

Now I do agree with this. Utopian Communism is an amazing ideal, but sadly, it will never work. Having said this, I disagree that it is because of an inherent greed in humanity however. Some people are more greedy than others and unfortunately they bring down the rest of humanity.

yes, but the problem with communism is, is that's like a chain, one weak link and the whole chain becomes weak. And then the mistake is made that history has proven to be made every time: communist leaders will try to remove those "weak links". And then a utopian communist state turns into a vicious dictatorial regime that's trying to sustain itself by letting the ppl believe that the lie they are living in is real.

As I said, some people are more greedy than others and unfortunately they bring down the rest of humanity. Both communist dictators and selfish capitalists fit in this category.

I can see this becoming another question in and of itself, but i would agree that greed is in the nature of human beings. It's hardly a 'one weak link' in the chain: if we look at RL communist revolutions, we see that they are largely built upon the 'proletariat' seeking to 'redistribute' wealth from the rich....from which they stand to be better off. It's like John Lennon singing about the ideal of no possessions from a mansion in America (where he's moved to escape British (welfare) taxes...

Those with the kind of sacrificial ideals are few. However, luckily, within PCP we have a collection of such people, (maybe because sacrifice isn't as difficult when you're only sacrificing in-game wealth). But i would disagree that we have to root out and eliminate weak links - the smaller the chain gets, the shorter it can reach. The reality is that all the links are weak, but with mutual support, systems and encouragement a chain can be upheld.

Whereas in my view, capitalism focusses on an the self, and exploiting those 'weaknesses' to gain as much material benefit. I think it denies a fundamental element of human existence, and has long been recognised as a dangerous ideal.

But thankfully, no one is fully Communist or fully Capitalist. A balance must be reached. Sure, its nice to gain material benefit, but its also nice to help others and share. Although greed is in the nature of the human being, so is friendship and caring for the less fortunate.

I agree with malta, any politcal or economic system must be mixed to be successful. Elements of capitalism and socialism are nessercery evils (depending on how you see things) after all.

The main reson why Captialism work and communism doesn't is because while communism goes against are human psyic e.g. greed and self intrest while captialism work with this ideas in mind. Thus with a captialism you get growth because everyone is trying to progess themselves.

Also the with communism because everyone is equal then noone has the right to lead thus this leads to civil disorder

and in the end these reason are also why captilism doesn't wor every body want's more money and so the country advances then everybody put's this money ahead of everything and you get serious social issues and people take far too big risks for this money and loose any common sence and the system collapses boom and bust what you want is nationalised industry with enough room for people to grow eg a wage cap lets say of 100k a year that way people can aspire to earn more money and you get the positives of capitalism, nothing going to go bust because it's in the hands of the country and the joeeveryman on the street is earning far much more money because the wealth is shared

@Rastari: what you are descibing is called 'leveling' a policy that was thought up during the King V Parliment English civil war. Although its a nice idea i can't work because the money you have also repersents power so by doing this the 'old elties' will lsoe there power. They will not allow this to happen

Socalism is a nice mix

if Labour were still socalist i would think they had a chance