I've tried to sum things up before but I think the paragraphs below come closest to expressing my view on the failings of the soviet union.
The problem for the soviet style socialism was that it ignored and was in turn undermined by human nature, while capitalism for all it's faults uses human nature as the engine to make it work. Socialism tries to change human nature, capitalism uses it.
It is more straightforward and easier to try and make a pure capitalist system work in a more equitable manner than to get a socialist system which may be more equitable in theory to work at all.
while capitalism for all it's faults uses human nature as the engine to make it work.
ReplyDeleteI cannot agree. Capitalism fails to take account of human irrationality too - the 'pure market' just doesn't exist naturally (i.e. without constant State intervention) in practice.