We explain what capitalism and socialism are, the most important economic systems, and what their differences are.
Capitalism and socialism are two opposite economic and philosophical systems.Capitalism and socialism
There are many ways to explain the differences between capitalism and socialism, two opposing economic and philosophical systems. Let's start by defining them both.
CAPITALISM: Capitalism is a system that is based on the private property of the means of production and the accumulation of capital as a route to the wealth of the nations. In this system, the offer and the demand, elements that make up the logic of the market, are those who regulate the distribution of capital and, therefore, the allocation of resources.
It arose as a consequence of the rise of the bourgeoisie as the ruling class in the Modern age and especially after the Industrial Revolution, which allowed the emergence of the industrial consumer society.
SOCIALISM: For its part, socialism is a doctrine political and economic that promotes social and community ownership of the means of production, as well as their administration by the working class, the proletariat, in order to build a society devoid of social classes, in which equality prevails in the distribution of resources and opportunities.
Socialism also comes from the Bourgeois Revolutions and the Liberalism born of the Illustration French, but it would not be until the twentieth century, with the contributions of Karl Marx and Federico Engels, that socialism would embrace a “scientific” logic, that is, a model and a procedure, and would thus cease to be simply a way of criticizing the prevailing system.
Socialism is also known as communism, although both terms are not exactly the same.
What is the difference between them?
The great distinction between these two systems points, first of all, to the economic functioning model and the role of the State in it. While the capitalists defend the Liberty full economic, leaving the market to determine the production needs and consumption, and therefore where the wealth flows, the socialists prefer a economy intervened and controlled by the State, which would act as a guardian entity to prevent the Social inequality.
To this protectionist role of Condition capitalists see it as an artificial intervention that does not really allow a productive balance of the productive and consuming forces, but benefits some artificially through the imposition of taxes or trade restrictions.
In addition, they allege that the State never manages resources as efficiently as the business community and that the distribution of economic aid to the less favored, of social plans and other forms of social investment, only makes the disadvantaged more dependent on the support of the State.
For their part, the socialists accuse the market of not building stable societies at all, but of favoring only the powerful, those who control the means of production and large national and international capital. Capitalist society is, in his view, a great factory of poverty, since the privileged model of life of the upper classes can only be sustained by exploiting the labor force of the lower classes.
One could say that socialists advocate communal property and the principle of solidarity above all else, while the capitalists defend freedom and individualism to everything, even in spite of the injustices that it may entail.