Monday, December 12, 2005
A Common Misconception
On Saturday, I posted about a classic problem with socialism. One of the comments that post drew illustrated a common misconception concerning socialism. The commenter drew upon the source material and concluded that because market forces were at play in a socialized setting the problem remained capitalism instead of socialism.
A lot of people that don't think things through thing this way. They think that socialism or something like it can do away with market forces somehow and thus eliminate the "problems" of capitalism. The problem is that market forces are a result not of the marketplace or the economy, but of the human condition.
Simply declaring something as having no market value will not eleminate the perception of value, and as long as there is a perceived value, whether that is based on currency, or some other means of exchange - status for example, those market forces will come into play.
Yes, agreed, this is an expression of greed. Greed is one of the seven deadlies, but it is also a matter of degree. Greed is also an expression of our righteous need to feed ourselves and pay for our basic material needs. Greed is a matter of degree, not object or value.
You see the "beauty" of capitalism is that it attempts to harness market forces instead of compete with them. True, it may be harnessing our baser natures, but given that the expression of same is an inevitability, it makes far more sense than anything else.
If you want to overcome that baser nature, which necessitates market forces, and thus makes capitalism the best of all possible economic system, then one must in fact change human nature.
Only the Holy Spirit has the power to do that.
A lot of people that don't think things through thing this way. They think that socialism or something like it can do away with market forces somehow and thus eliminate the "problems" of capitalism. The problem is that market forces are a result not of the marketplace or the economy, but of the human condition.
Simply declaring something as having no market value will not eleminate the perception of value, and as long as there is a perceived value, whether that is based on currency, or some other means of exchange - status for example, those market forces will come into play.
Yes, agreed, this is an expression of greed. Greed is one of the seven deadlies, but it is also a matter of degree. Greed is also an expression of our righteous need to feed ourselves and pay for our basic material needs. Greed is a matter of degree, not object or value.
You see the "beauty" of capitalism is that it attempts to harness market forces instead of compete with them. True, it may be harnessing our baser natures, but given that the expression of same is an inevitability, it makes far more sense than anything else.
If you want to overcome that baser nature, which necessitates market forces, and thus makes capitalism the best of all possible economic system, then one must in fact change human nature.
Only the Holy Spirit has the power to do that.
