this post was submitted on 21 Sep 2024
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People are neither inherently selfish or inherently generous. People are survivors regardless of what is necessary to do so. A human will give the shirt off his back to his neighbor but will spite a customer service worker because they're in a bad mood or feel slighted. Your tribe is your most important social aspect
But it is that selfishness that communism can't control for and that capitalism only dampens the effect of. You need a system that counteracts those selfish tendencies in order to reach lasting stability.
In what way does capitalism "dampen" selfishness?
It reserves selfishness for a handful of weirdos, and allows every worker to be selfless.
it rewards it in my view. it conditions us to be selfish
In that it makes it open. In capitalism, ot is assumed that everyone is a selfish actor. Under communism, everyone is supposed to work together for the greater good, and when they aren't, you can't call them out, because they would accuse you of 'undermining the unity'. And because they tend to be in positions of power, you will end up in the Gulag.
Where on Earth did you get this idea?
What have you read or where did you get your understanding from?
‘A system that counteracts those selfish tendencies’ you mean a system in which:
I agree with this. Communist like systems where there is central control of resources encourages corruption as people vie to get closer to the central control of the resources. Capitalism is just more honest about the fact that many people - not all of them - are fundamentally self-interested and entices them into cooperation with others by offering the carrot of individual rewards. Those are probably the same people that would try to exploit the system if it were more centrally controlled.
Communists advocate for immediate recall elections, and units forming syndicates that send delegates. Communism is designed against corruption.
Capitalism isn't honest nor deceitful, it's just a Mode of Production. Capitalism doesn't have a face or a will.
What's considered natural depends on the Material Conditions, ie the Mode of Production. Capitalism reinforces greed by rewarding it systematically, Communism and Socialism do not.