Conner Harris ’19, Photo Editor
Throughout history, many different forms of government have tried their hand at running a nation or two. Democracies, monarchies, dictatorships, republics, and totalitarian systems have all found successes and failures in trying to get a foothold across the world.
With these governments come unique economic structures. Two of the most analyzed, and debated systems that have tried to change an economy for the best are communism and capitalism. In theory, both systems have their appeals to different people; however, the two systems have very different track records when implemented. Capitalism has not only proven itself to be a better system, but it is a system that offers the people under it more opportunity to succeed and does not set a cap at what an individual can achieve.
Two of the largest countries in the world, the United States and China, will be the sample for the comparison because the two superpowers have a capitalist and communist economy respectively. The U.S has a third of the population that China does but has a 50 percent higher national Gross Domestic Product than China (21,510 trillion to 14,242 trillion). Capitalism does not control industries like communism does which allows a business the freedom to push for the top of an industry and specialize their products. This freedom, which is not available in a communist economy, increases a country’s overall wealth which improves the standard quality of life for the majority of the population. Senator Bernie Sanders once said. “Capitalism does a number of things very well: it helps create an entrepreneurial spirit; it gets people motivated to come up with new ideas, and that’s a good thing.” Even some opponents of capitalism admit that it can be credited for the wide spectrum of products on the market.
Individuals have more freedom in a capitalist economy as well. In a communist country, individual’s work is assigned and the products they can purchase are severely limited. On the other hand, capitalism offers extra motivation for hard work and persistence in that, if one works for a goal, they can achieve it.
Some people may argue that communism is better because it provides everyone with a job and no one would be unemployed. While in theory this is correct, in history we see that these guaranteed jobs left the public in poverty because the jobs all paid the same and the payment each person received was low.
Capitalism is better than communism because it stimulates innovation where communism promotes a stale economy. Freedom is leagues more appealing than taking orders on how to live your life.
Photo courtesy of Medium
Lyon Life 