Comparison of Free Enterprise and Communism

Let's start by introducing capitalism; capitalism supports the idea of private property, believes society can do better when an individual is able to purchase and produce as they please. On the other hand, socialism is the theory that property ownership should be controlled by government, and that the government can do more with the assets than individuals are able to. I for one do not think society should run in a pure socialism or a pure capitalism, I believe that a proper society works best by using bits and pieces of both forms of governments. To help you better understand my stance between capitalism and socialism, it is would be very helpful to have some knowledge on the differences, advantages and disadvantages of both systems.

The difference between capitalism and socialism are far greater than one would expect. Capitalism is a system that allows each person to have the right to have their own wealth. Capitalism labels that you can invest your own money in someone else's business; this system in one condensed statement is all about freedom and one's individual rights, everyone can do whatever they want to do. On the other hand, socialism is a system where the government owns everything and that the individual owns nothing. You do not get to have your own money and you are not paid to work. Your own home is the government's property. In this system the government gets all the wealth that is produced by all the people in their country, and with all the input of money they give a smaller output to give the people houses and food. This system provides no incentive to do your best or be creative, rather just live. To wrap up socialism in one little sentence this system is classified as individuals being locked in a cell.

Advantages within these two classes are quite simple and easy to comprehend. Capitalism has the advantage of providing greater incentives for individual labor and further achievements. Socialism works to offset these shortcomings by redistributing some of the excess wealth that is created from the top back down to the lower classes. This can work to increase demand for goods, and for labor. This is a great way of helping to correct the unbalanced lifestyles, as well as helping to maintain the basic welfare of the lower classes. Ideally ensuring that they are able to overcome any hardships and continue to put both their labor and wealth back into the economy.

Between both of these two systems of living, a few disadvantages exist. The disadvantage in capitalism is that those at that top will always be wealthy beyond what may in fact be fair. At times they may exclude those at the bottom from participation in large scale economies, in times where technological capacities and lowered demand for goods leads to surplus labor. Now within socialism lie a couple of disadvantages. First is the concern that by ensuring the survival of the lower classes under any and all circumstances, you may remove any motivation to contribute their labor at all. Secondly, there is the concern that the ruling bodies that create these programs of redistribution will tend to allocate wealth in such a way that it simply flows to them, rather than the upper class which it originally was taken from, or the lower classes it was supposed to help. The underlying problem with any economic system is simply that human nature will always cause wealth to accumulate at the feet of those who have the most power, and that no system of government yet conceived can genuinely distribute control in a way such that everybody has exactly the amount they genuinely need and deserve.