I finished this course a while back with the expectation that this is going to be an issue during the upcoming election and I should educate myself. It has taken some time to process it all and organize my thoughts about it. These are a collection of thoughts from sources not all derived from the course but related to the topic. They should not be taken for anything besides simply my own reactions. Also, if it is too long and you don’t read it, I don’t blame you. Condensing my thoughts of a 24hour lecture series of a controversial and complex subject to a simple post is not going to happen. You can view/listen to the course below and make your own opinions. (I got it on Audible)
https://www.thegreatcourses.com/courses/capitalism-vs-socialism-comparing-economic-systems.html
Here are some facts I find enlightening on the subject in no particular order. I put more socialist/communist discussion because I live in a predominantly capitalist country and knew very little about it.
1. The most striking thing about taking this course is how little I knew about Soviet Union history. Though, it is not surprising that US education puts a formal enemy’s history low on the priority list, it is still shocking how little I knew.
2. There are four big names from whom all of modern economic thought derive: Adam Smith, Karl Marx, Keynes and Friedman. All of them were closer to what we would consider philosophers than traditional economists.
3. The paranoia and brutal secret police that we associate with communist society had its origins in Tsarist Russia.
4. Having the communist revolution occur in a country with an illiterate and impoverished populace was a surprise to the communist thinkers who thought the revolutions would occur in rich countries.
5. Russian standard of living on average grew under soviet rule in the early years. The centrally planned economy’s growth was astounding. To me, this highlights how good for the soviet economy redistribution was from such an unequal society and how good educating its people was. And it also points to how terrible Tsarist Russia was; simply anything was better than that despotic regime.
6. There have been several social movements in the US. Long lived communes survived till the Great Depression. Notably, Catholics have led many of the communes. Also notable were the catholic led social reforms around the world during the industrial revolution.
7. I noticed awhile ago that the ideals of communism and the monastic life (particularly the rule of st. Benedict) share a lot in common: a society where everyone is equal and works to benefit of the community. To make such a successful commune, the people must agree to give up the pursuit of individual wealth accumulation. They can either give it up voluntarily or be coerced. While many monks and nuns give it up in return for spiritual growth, most communist states chose coercion—to their detriment. In my opinion, this is one of Marx’s biggest blunder: By making communism an atheist dogma, he removed a key motivation for voluntary sacrifice. Strangely, the Kims in North Korea seem to have grasped this better than any previous communist state. They have created a pseudo religion around their leaders, allowing complete devotion by its citizens—certainly a factor in its continued existence.
8. Many of the rights we associate with our work and take for granted are “socialist” reforms. Many were done because of pressure from socialist movements—including fear of revolutions. These are now a standard part of every western democratic society.
9. Professor Stuart considers the European Union a resounding success and failure both. It’s a success in that no major war has happened on the continent since its inception-a feat not to be discounted (war is bad for any economy). The failure is that is has not been able to raise the status of many of its citizens as much as expected.
10. Tragedy of the commons- the tragedy of the commons is perhaps one of the most difficult problems to address. This is the problem of having a commonly available resource that everyone shares and uses; everyone can act rationally and use as much of it as they can to extract value for themselves and as a result the resource can disappear. Neither socialism nor capitalism has a good answer for this problem. One recent global movement in law is an in-between of individual property rights and state control. It is to give property rights of land to communities rather than individuals. This has been successful where resources are scarce (islands), cooperation is needed (rice farming), or the resource takes tending (shared pastureland). The tragedy of the commons still is a problem when a resource straddles borders (aquifers, rivers) or law enforcement is weak (the high seas, remote areas).
11. State control of industry can work up to the point where innovation needs to happen for further growth to occur. Once the industry catches up to this point, it will start lagging behind free enterprise.
12. Price controls do some strange things to the economy. Hold some price steady and eventually there will be some point where the market demand is too much to match production. Shortages occur. Release price controls and you get hyperinflation. This happened when the Soviet Union collapsed. Professor Stuart says this event suggests that in some way price controls “store up” inflation. I am intrigued by the possibility of having that in a state’s toolkit. I hope it never has to be used.
13. State controlled farming simply does not work. Farmers work best when they have their own land and control their own time. China’s survival likely depended on the secret farmer movement to gain property rights. The story about how China’s farmers did that is fascinating.
14. China’s survival as a communist regime rather than going the way of the Soviet states had a lot to do with it being a young regime coming out of WWII. It did not have decades of “this is the way things are done” attitude that hobbled the Soviet Union’s ability to adapt to a changing world.
15. There are some property rights in China.
16. Pretty much all rich countries are a mix between hard capitalism and socialism. This appears to be the best way to create a prosperous nation. Too much socialism and you get an oppressive state controlled economy that lags behind. Too much capitalism and you get an unequal society with corruption and a profit over people mentality.
Anyways, these are some thoughts of mine. I hope they are enlightening and help inform you for the upcoming election. Thank you for reading. As a reward, you have permission for that extra scoop of ice cream. 🙂
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