No. I'm not going to write an expert thesis on these. I don't call myself even a follower of these. I'm still trying to understand these and other "isms". When I move around in the net, I see a lot of educated people "cursing" these two especially. That's the trigger for this post. This may look as an advocacy for these "isms". Anyway, what I write here are just my personal opinions and any opinions are welcome.
In Europe, during the Industrial Revolution, the industry owners or captains used to bully the workers to get the job done. They used to use "sticks" to beat the laborers even for minor lapses. The workers used to get subsistence pay and never used to get anything extra because they feared that workers would not come to work next day. This was the background for Socialist theories and, a step above, the Communist theories, which got prominence and support from across sections of society which mainly included workers. The privileges that we enjoy at workplace surely has something to do with this history. So, when one can easily accuse these principles, just think from the point of view of a normal worker who still have fight for his/her basic rights.
So was Capitalism evil then? No. Definitely not. But, the practitioners of Capitalism were wrong. They were the problem. If they had followed policies to give the workers equal rights, I believe, Communism & Socialism would not have held ground. But later when these "isms" gained prominence, the practitioners tried to use Communism as their political framework and could not handle it properly. Even religions were against it because of the threat free-thought posed to their ideologies. And wherever it failed, it failed because of being in the wrong hands. So now should we back only Capitalism then? That's a contentious issue.
Capitalism doesn't require much of a background to grow. Because it just requires Human greed. But I believe it's a wrong notion. I don't think that it's capitalism. The financial turmoil that we still experience is not because of Capitalism, but how Capitalism was practiced with greed. But the nations which have used it properly, has used it for good. I should say, real good. The human rights are preserved unlike in the initial phase of Industrial Revolution because of the 'counter' "isms" that came up, which were conspicuously present in every welfare policies. I believe Europe and US are best examples for using both the sides. The observance of May 1 as Labour Day started in Chicago, US. Still, US & Europe has strongest worker unions.
I believe that whatever we enjoy in our day to day life has the right mix of right parts of these principles and ideologies. But, we still live in a world where the top 7 wealthy people "can" pull the bottom 25% of human population out of hunger and poverty. The problem is that they don't have visibility. No one gives them visibility. And because of this, we are blind. Even if we know, we act blind.
So just Think and Analyze. On your own.
