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sc94597 on 30 July 2014
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SamuelRSmith said:
So many people seem to misunderstand what capitalism is. Capitalism refers to using capital as a means of increasing production.

Capitalism has nothing to do with charity, banning people from feeding the homeless, punishing people, or freedom.

The word "capitalism" cannot be used interchangeably with "free trade", and capitalism doesn't require free trade, it can exist in fascist societies too ("crony capitalism" - ie, the world that most of us live in today.)

The United States typically employs a capitalistic means of production, but its model is more facism than freedom, and this is true (to varying degrees) for Canada, Europe, Russia, China, Australia, etc.

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My view on communism is fairly simple, I don't think the labour theory of value holds water. Value is determined by the potential consumer, not by the means of production. Second, central planning of any kind runs into the "knowledge problem" (do we build a factory in location X or Y? Does the factory produce widget A or B? To produce the widget, do we employ means of production R or G? - This is why "attempted communist" countries always run into shortages). Finally, the views on property rights do not correspond to typical human nature, you can't bend humanity to fit your theories, it must be the other way around *

* I always see/hear (including in this thread) people come out with the line "communism would be awesome if not for humans", this bothers me. It implies that the system requires a redesign of man. If we could redesign man, then /any/ system could be perfect, we just redesign man around him. If we make humans "less greedy", then surely the top complaints about what people call "capitalism" would also be eliminated?


Your post summarizes my thoughts as well, especially the bolded 

Rather than the labor theory of value I adhere to the:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subjective_theory_of_value

and therefore logically support free-market "capitalism" rather than state capitalism/corporatism/fascism and/or socialism/centrally-planned economies.