Essay, Research Paper: Capitalism Vs. Communism

The Health and Morals Act of 1802 limited children under fourteen from working over twelve hours a day
(Doc 3). The factor Act of 1833, which enacted that no person under 18 years of age shall be allowed to
work at night in machinery (Doc 4). It allowed the child under 18 to work less than 12 hours a day or less
than 69 hours in any one-week. There was a ten hours act, which said that the women or children s limit
workdays are 10 hours. *
Socialism is one of the roles of government in the economy. Adam Smith, who is the father of capitalism,
believes in laissez-faire, hands off the government. He believes all production should be sale at the best
possible lowest price. (Doc 5) While Adam Smith believes in capitalism, Engel is criticizing it. Engel
believes the capitalism seizes everything for themselves but not the poor, they remain nothing. (Doc 7)
Karl Marx, the author of a 23 page pamphlet, The Communist Manifesto , and Engels recommend that
all the working men of all countries should unite and is to be equal, should overthrow of all existing social
conditions. (Doc 8) Both Marx and Engels are communists, they believe in Communism. They argued
human societies have always been divide into warring classes, and that everyone is equal, no moving up in
society. *
Communism is an original system of society, quite different from Democracy in many ways. While total
democracy is not widely spread, many forms of it are prosperous throughout the world today. *
One of the first and major differences between a Communist and Democratic government is their contrary
economic systems. In a communist government, the community owns the major resources and means of
production. The goal of such a system is to prevent any one person or group of people from becoming
radically rich, while others are extremely poor. The system attempts to eliminate lower class by balancing
the wealth between rich and poor, therefore giving everyone equal pay and ownership. Unfortunately, this
results in an increased lower class. However, in a Democracy, free enterprising is permitted, and smiled
upon. ? Here, free enterprising helps the economy to flourish. People can organize their own businesses
and receive their own profits if it succeeds, or debts if it fails. In this system, the harder a person works,
the more money they receive, allowing them to make ends meet. The downside to democracy is that
people can get a high paying job through education, but may work just as hard at a lower paying job and
receive less money. As Winston Churchill once said, "The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal
sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries." Generally,
Democracy s seem be more successful economically. *
In a democracy, money is the most dominant incentive. On the contrary, in a communist government, a
person can work a million times harder than the person sitting next to him, and receive equal pay. This
results in no incentive on the part of the worker whatsoever. When there is nothing to achieve by working
harder, people become slothful, which does little good for a country s economy. In most attempts, past and
present, communism has failed economically, whereas democracies have a commendable success rate. **
Communism is most widely taken up by Third World countries striving for national independence and
sudden social change (Russia, Cuba, and Northern Korea). Forms of democracy however, are usually
exercised by countries, which have a long-range goal to succeed, or improve economically (Britain,
U.S.A.). Most widely first heard of through Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx s Communist Manifesto,
communism hasn t been around nearly as long as democracy, which is first known to have existed in the
city-states of ancient Greece and Rome. *
In theory, everyone is equal in a communist government, however this is not true in many aspects. When
only one person controls a communist government, it s not far off from totalitarianism, as that one voice
is the only one that really matters. In a democracy, however, every citizen has an equal say in government.
Suffrage rights apply to men and women alike, regardless of race, past education, heritage, etc. Even in
ancient Greece and Rome, every citizen could vote individually at an assembly, with a vote from a farmer
counting as much as a vote from an artist. *
As you can see, Communist and Democratic forms of government are very contrary to each other. As they
both have benefits and disadvantages, people continuously argue over the superior choice, despite history.
In conclusion the government should limit its interference in our lives to the extent of protecting our basic
rights and freedoms in an efficient and a fair manner.