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From: rcc@imsvax.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.philosophy
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Whither Are We Drifting?
Message-ID: <210@imsvax.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 17-Jul-84 11:13:05 EDT
Article-I.D.: imsvax.210
Posted: Tue Jul 17 11:13:05 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 20-Jul-84 03:16:12 EDT
References: <370@ames-lm.UUCP> <88700005@hpfclk.UUCP>
Organization: IMS Inc, Rockville MD
Lines: 46

>Capitalism cannot fit into any political framework, at least not the way
>I define  Capitalism.  Economic  systems  deal with the  subject  of how
>goods  and  services  are  produced  and  distributed.  If the goods are
>produced by and taken from coerced individuals, then the economic system
>is  slavery,  national  boundries  notwithstanding.

Arrgh.  Slavery is NOT an economic system.  Slavery is regarding human
beings primarily as an resource to be controlled and distributed just
like any other resource.  Slavery stems from what I consider to be the
ultimate evil, regarding another human being as a thing.  You can fit
slavery just fine into a capitalistic economy by not considering slaves
to be "individuals".  The Old South did a grand job of that.

>The reason why  Capitalism  cannot  exist except in a  politically  free
>climate is because the producers (that is, individuals)  must be free to
>choose  what it is that  they  wish to  produce,  and they  must own the
>product of their work, which they can sell for a fair  price.  If you do
>not own the product of your work, then you do not own your life.  If you
>hold a human  life as a standard  of value, a  standard  from  which all
>other  values are based, then True  Capitalism  (that is,  laissez-faire
>Capitalism)  is the only moral  economic  system  available  to mankind.
>When political  freedom goes out the door, so does  Capitalism,  and any
>buying, selling, or owning that occurs thereafter is based on an immoral
>system of producing goods.  If entities in the US (or anywhere else) buy
>or sell goods  produced by slaves, or goods  produced by people who were
>not  compensated  for their  work, then  those   entities  are guilty of
>supporting slavery, socialism, communism, or whatever.

More ideological raving.  There is no reason why socialism or communism
can't exist in a free society.  What if the people CHOSE another economic
system?  While some give individuals less economic freedom than capitalism,
(such as socialism), others such as communism give more.  (The USSR does NOT
practice communism, it has a directed economy and practices totalitarianism)
The last sentence doesn't even make sense.  Even in slavery, people are
getting "compensated" for their work.  If the work is adequate, they live
and get fed.  If not, ...  Economic and political systems are NOT tied
together.

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