Capitalism is epitomical of human nature, conversely, communism seeks to cover up the flaws in human nature.
Communism ;
1.
a theory or system of social organization based on the holding of all property in common, actual ownership being ascribed to the community as a whole or to the state.
2.
(often initial capital letter) a system of social organization in which all economic and social activity is controlled by a totalitarian state dominated by a single and self-perpetuating political party.
Capitalism;
an economic system in which investment in and ownership of the means of production, distribution, and exchange of wealth is made and maintained chiefly by private individuals or corporations, esp. as contrasted to cooperatively or state-owned means of wealth.
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www.dictionary.comAs you can see, capitalism and communism are in direct contrast of each other. Foremost, capitalism works on the basis of incentives, of personal interests, gain and profits.. It works on the idea that what you gain is directly proportional to your work. Whereas, communism is based on the ideal idea that everyone is equal, and that everyone deserves the same.
The demonstration of communism by the great USSR showed that the many flaws of communism. What was a superb theoratical system, instead became the bane of the USSR. The causes of failure of communism were many, the more obvious one being the fault of human nature. It is exactly this cause, that the US is what it is today, because of its capitalist economy.
The communist style of agriculture, the communes, in which multiple plots of land were combined to form an extremely large plot of land, on which multiple farmers worked on the same plot. In this way, famers who were more efficient, more dilligent felt that there was no need to produce more grain than any other farmer - the lack of incentives. This due to the fact that excess grain would be procured by the state, and there was no personal gain. Furthermore, people felt that their own hardwork should not be shared with someone else of less efficiency. In contrast to the capitalist style, where farmers were to work on their own plot of land, and sell the excess grain for personal profit, there was the incentive to work.
Another example would the soviet style of industries and the capitalist style. First off, the soviets control the production levels of the industries throughout the whole of USSR through the use of Gosplan. The significance of this would be that there was no effort by the industries to become more efficient, have higher quality goods. They simply met the production level. However, compared to the capitalist industries, the managers, were out to maximise profit and minimise losses. In such an incentive driven area, there was a need to produce products that were of higher quality, to oust other competing companies. And to produce goods more efficiently to maximise profits.
Such would be one of the most basic example of human nature - greed. Greed is what drives capitalism and us. There is no other reason why humans would want to study hard, work hard to earn more. Greed is that that drives us, thus, capitalism is built upon this very fact, and the embodiment of greed. On the other hand, communism seeks to remove/quell/cover up this human nature, by proclaiming that work is done for the greater good, for greater prosperity among the whole nation. In such a direct contrast of human nature, it is not difficult to see why communism had it set backs. Why should people work hard, when there is no benefits to be reaped?
Envy/jealously is also another aspect of human nature. Capitalism, is also built upon this fact, and communism also attempts to cover it up.
Capitalism seeks to utilise jealously/envy to motivate people. If we see someone who is reaping the benefits of his/her own hard work, we would be motivated to work harder than that person, in order to achieve such benefits. This is merely a simple example that can be applied to many all around the world. Communism, instead seeks to remove such feelings of jealousy and envy by removing the conditions and these would exist. The disparity in material wealth, special privillges etc by giving everyone an equal amount of everything. By doing so, communism provides even less incentives for people to work harder, it removes the competitive edge among people.
Lust, another aspect of the human nature, is similarly used by capitalism and communism seeks to dispel. The most common item, that mankind lusts for is without a doubt, power. Capitalism, seeks to use such lust to drive people to work harder, by dangling a carrot in front of the donkey. What would be the most obvious way to gain power? Work hard, gain acceptance of higher ups, and get a promotion. In such a way, people have greater incentive to work harder and gain power/influence. However, communism, by removing the disparity in many areas, and proclaiming an equality in all aspects, removes this lust of power. There is no power to be gained from working hard. You don't get to move anywhere, up or down in the corporate ladder.
These few examples are the main characteristics of human nature, although there is indeed many more, but those are of lesser importance.
From these few examples, it is noticable, how capitalism works on the very basis of human nature by providing pure incentives[in many forms], a whole economic system is able to work. And such incentives have a certain appeal to mankind as a whole. And it is shown that capitalism is indeed based on human nature and as such, embodies the human nature. While on the other hand, communism seeks to quell human nature, to cover up its major flaws and weaknesses.
Human nature happens to be a sensitive topic, and many issues can be derived from it.
First off, which came first, human nature or capitalism?
It is possibly argued that capitalism is the cause of human nature. Because of the policies of capitalism, it is possible that human nature has adapted to these policies, instead of these policies adapted to serving human nature. Existance of capitalist systems have been present for at least 150 years. It is possible that human nature of today's largly capitalist world is not the same as that 150 years ago. Evolution and adaptation is possible. Furthermore, many people link capitalist materialism with these human natures. In such a way, the soviets view towards capitalism, that it is evil, can be expressed as true, leading to the degeneration of human nature.
However, if that were to be true, then the explanation of the failure of communism through the use of human nature that is todays would be invalid. However, we know this to be not true. Communes, implemented in the 1920s already suffered from issues such as the lack of incentives to work. Thus, there is a greater possibility that humans don't change much. lol.
Similarly, this also raises the issue of communism vs capitalism.
To put it simply, capitalism happens to work because it emphasized on the very same flaws and weaknesses of the human nature that communism rejects. On the whole, both the ideas of communism and capitalism both had its merits.
Through such an example, the acceptance of a person's flaws and weaknesses is waaay better than trying to rid him/her of it. WoW.
What this leads to, is that, whether to cover up the weaknesses/flaws of a certain system, person, animal, whatever through the use of certain solutions or the further strengthening/emphasis on the strengths of a certain system/animal/person would be better?
The issue on whether human natures, such as lust, greed and envy, whether it is for the better or for worse is further debatable. But I won't touch on that.
And on a whole, I don't think very highly of this piece of work. It's not up to standard.. lol.
