Capitalism or Communism

Well, perhaps not that extreme.

In light of the upcoming United States presidential elections, I'm searching for people's opinions on government.
What do you think a government's duties should be?
Is a Capitalistic society better, or one that leans more toward Socialism?

Should the government be limited, or should it have more power?

Opinions?

It all depends on who has more firepower.

> It all depends on who has more firepower.

What exactly do you mean by this?
I don't think I understand your point....

There are two main forces in this subject: the government and the people.

The type of government comes secondary to the question of who has more firepower.

> The type of government comes secondary to the question of who has more firepower.

That wasn't really the question I asked.
I was wanting to know what type of government is better and why you think that.

Ghan_04, if you had read the rules you would've know you're meant to include your own opinion on the subject of discussion. Do so immediately.

Ah. My apologies.
I had intended to do so, just not right away.

Personally, I think that a capitalistic type government that practices laissez faire principles is far superior to one that prefers big government.
A non-interfering government allows for rights and liberties for individuals, and is the only system that has been proven to work where the opposite has failed. A competitive market that promotes personal effort and free choice is always better for an economy and a country as a whole.

I don't really like either system.

With each system people are exploited and there is curruption.

Possibly on a small enough scale either one could work, but once a system reaches a certain size it starts to break down and not be as efficient.

That could definitely be true.
Though, we have never seen a truly capitalist society to date, so there is no way to know for sure that those things would happen.
Though, for that matter, we've never seen a truly socialist or communist system yet either, though the USSR came pretty darn close. Some other nations are coming pretty close to socialism today, though.

If you like neither of those systems, how do you think a nation should govern itself? Something in between? A completely different system? I'd like to hear what you have to say.

Originally Posted by Deep Sea Kraken

I don't really like either system.

With each system people are exploited and there is curruption.

Possibly on a small enough scale either one could work, but once a system reaches a certain size it starts to break down and not be as efficient.

Theoretically, with communism no people are "exploited".
Also, systems don't corrupt people. It's just that there will always be corrupt people, no matter what system you use.

My opinion is that without a mix of both, every government is doomed to fail at some point... But that's not because of the systems, it's because of corruption. A mix could bring some balance and fix some exploits here and there...

Originally Posted by Eleandor

systems don't corrupt people. It's just that there will always be corrupt people, no matter what system you use.

Then the goal should be to keep those people out of power.

communism / capitalism basically are economical systems. An economical system should not have such a goal. Goals like that belong to political / jurisdical systems. Therefor, my opinion is that you can't really say either one of those 2 is worse than the other.

I do think, though, that there come some governmental requirements with either system.
Capitalism necessitates that the government does NOT regulate ANYTHING. (Pure capitalism, that is.)
On the other hand, Socialism/Communism requires that the government maintain equality and provide for the citizens.

So, while they are both mainly economic systems, I think the governments have to have some boundaries with regard to either.

The goal of communism (well... if you prefer to call the USSR a pure communistic nation, I consider "marxism" communism...) is to actually end up without a government at all...
I do understand where you're coming from though. And that's also why I said that a good mix of both economical systems (as well as political systems) sounds the best solution for most countries IMO. Based on cultural roots, one country would lean more towards communism than another, but I do think it's best to stay away from pure capitalism or pure communism.

man I know what communism did to my country and I can tell you that anything could be better than that. It's nut just an economy system, it's a life control device. It's not all fun and games like in Marx's theories.
You could barely leave the country, all your phone calls were listened, your best friend could be a national security agent that reports everything you do to the goverment...almost everyone has a file with reports of anything they did, they're stored at some archive I forgot it's name. You had to sit in endless lines to get a bottle of milk and bread. You basically had no control over your life. And much more.

I don't know how communism goes nowadays, like in China, but I know what happened here and is more than enough for me to say NO to it. Anything but communism man.