Capitalism Vs. Socialism - A debate about these and Social responsibilities
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Capitalism and Socialism, yup, those are the hottest topics around me now a days. I have a friend whom I consider a supreme knowledge owner about certain topics among the group of people I know or interact with, and capitalism is one of them. I often heard him saying how capitalists are making this society weak and do not allow the border between rich and poor to be blurred. I wasn't aware about these topics until two years ago, so naturally I felt inclined as to why this is and what it means to me. Our debate started off by following Reddit topic about capitalism and socialism.
Capitalism is a stage in history in which exchange is necessary for survival. Most of us have to exchange our labor power for a wage and then exchange that money for the goods and services we need. This is because most of us do not control means of production with which we could simply produce what we need directly. Socialism does not aim to ban all forms of exchange, but rather to make exchange unnecessary. Produce what you can, take what you need from our collective labor. You wouldn't need to make an exchange to get food, a home, healthcare, etc. There would be kids trading baseball cards and other casual trades like that, but for most things in life there would be no motivation to exchange anything.
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While reading this (let me remind you that I'm still a beginner in this topic, a newbie who just ended up in this web of morals and principals and what not) I casually placed a point.
Me : So if I read this correct, people who are opposed to capitalism believe in an organization where the profit is divided equally among the people who actually provided input in making that profit. Doesn't that mean, that if the organization is in loss, those people should pay the organization to recover from it?
Him : Dude, you're way off from the topic. You didn't understand the definition of socialism. You're talking about profit and loss, but that's what we need to eliminate. An environment where everyone is responsible, and can fulfil the need of anybody, and that person will do the same in return.
While this was ongoing, another friend of mine came in crashing with - "You know, this all leads us to the topic of self-satisfaction. Self-satisfaction is the key to happiness. You only have to accurately differentiate between 'need' and 'want'. Right now, greed is driving this capitalism filled society."
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Ok. I think he was right about some points, but I didn't agree on "differentiating between 'need' and 'want'".
Me : It is not that easy to differentiate between 'need' and 'want'. I can easily switch 'what I want' into 'what I need'. For example, I want a car right now. Although I don't need as per my current situation, you know, my workplace is nearby and all the groceries and other stuff are available in the vicinity. So in short, I do not need a car right now. But if I really want to convert 'what I want' into 'what I need', all I have to do is to switch my home to a remote location, say 20 miles away from my office. Now, I need a car. You see what I did there? The thing is, I was born and grew up in the world where money is the most important thing and self-satisfaction can only be derived from the list of achievements or weight of your wallet or validation that you seek and acquire from the world. How do you unlearn this all and start from the beginning to understand what self-satisfaction is? How do you draw a line between 'what I want' and 'what I need'?
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I was way off, I know, but it does make sense if you generalize it for other things. After a while, I continued my conversation with my other friend about capitalism and socialism.
Him : The problem with capitalists is that they are focused on making money, increasing their own wealth while giving nothing back to the society. They do not have the sense of social responsibility.
And another question struck my mind.
Me : Why is it necessary to give back to the society? Why it is important to have the sense of social responsibility? Why do I have to give something to the society when the society has done nothing but fill my mind with many unnecessary things?
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I know, I was being rude over here. But it was seriously a genuine question. Up until now, I was only focused on my studies and my career. The thought of having a social responsibility or giving back to the society never crossed my mind, and yet I hear everyone saying the same exact thing. I am trying to understand these (somehow) important concepts.
Him : Because society gave you everything. An environment for your studies, books, and much more. After all that, you should feel the sense of giving back to the society.
Me : See, first of all, the society gave me everything with a tag of cost attached to it. I bought the books. It was an equivalent exchange of value. They gave me knowledge printed on a paper and arranged properly in a hardcover, and in return I gave them the money they deserve for the efforts. It ended there. Doesn't the same concept apply to everything else that this society offered me?.
He didn't give me proper answer to this so I ask you. What do you think about this point?
Me : And second point, I do not believe that the people whom you tagged as capitalists do not give anything to the society. I have seen many major corporations whose founders were once belonged to middle class families. They worked hard towards their goals and ideas to reach the point where they are standing right now. I believe in hard work. If someone deserves the reward, he/she shall get it eventually, but without working or doing anything, you expect capitalists to help alleviate your financial situation, then I do not agree with you.
I had to give him an example so I took facebook.
Me : Do you think Mark Zuckerberg is a capitalist?
Him : Yes.
Me : Ok, so you believe that Mr. Mark should have some sense of social responsibility and start giving back to the society. But the problem is, you expect the help which can hold a monetary value. But if you try to see it in a different perspective, Facebook helped connect millions of people. Someone got separated from a friend or relative, but they got connected through Facebook, now they can talk to each other, share the moments they have experienced and what not. There are many positive traits of using Facebook, don't you think that this is what he gave back to the society? Something above monetary valuation.
There were many points which I wanted to discuss further and understand. As you may see, I lack knowledge in any of these topics and I try to judge anything based on logic and experience. What's your take on this?