Feudalism vs. Capitalism vs. Communism vs. Socialism
Wherein I argue with a meme
I will post the actual meme I’m arguing with below because I don’t want it to be the main photo on this article.
My mother once told me that I would argue with a fence post. It was probably unwise to point out that the phrase is a cliché. But she was absolutely right.
Therefore when a friend — with way too much time on her hands — linked to this on Facebook, I had a strong urge to argue.
I’m no conservative. I’d love to believe the meme is true and blame it all on capitalism. But it’s not true.
Poverty has a bunch of causes. Socialism (democratic socialism) would relieve a lot of it. I’m a huge fan of universal basic income or a reverse tax. I’m more in favor of the latter.
Capitalism creates wealth
I’ve described the rudimentary outline of basic capitalism before, but I’ll repeat it here.
- You take come kind of raw material.
- You shape it into something, adding value.
- You sell it to someone who…