Communism has been defined as a system where:
- People work according to their ability and receive according to their needs
- All big decisions are made at the centre
- All data is processed at the centre
Capitalism, on the other hand, is an alternative where:
- People are free to buy/ sell/ invest in whatever they like
- They can make their own decisions
- Good choices soon follow – mistakes are soon spotted and corrected
- National data is made available to all
Matthew Parris in The Times made the distinction clearer:
- Free market competition is thought by some to be wasteful
- Competition fragments provision, duplicates services in one area, forgoes economies of scale, creates uneven provision across the country, creates an invidious incentive to outperform comrades and siphons off money to profiteering shareholders
- Co-ordination, collaboration and co-operation are needed across all sectors
- Different materials which are delivered by different suppliers to get a cheaper deal must be stopped – as must all performance-related bonuses
- The state should match supply to forecast demand – it can do this better!
- And set fair prices, fair wages and agreed standards for quality
Hence communism failed
And given “productivity is the guts of capitalism” according to Warren Buffett, capitalist supreme, it’s interesting that Deng Xiaoping, leader of the People’s Republic of China, also said: “without high productivity, socialism is nothing but a boast”