Capitalism vs Socialism

This meme passed through my Facebook feed before disappearing into the deep abyss. Rather than search for my friends post destroy it on there, I figured I could just answer more broadly here. The question posed, “if capitalism is evil and socialism good why isn’t the migrant caravan headed to Venezuela?” As it asked for a liberal to answer, I shall give it my best shot. 

Capitalism is the best economic system that we have, providing great incentives for effort, ingenuity, and innovation. But we must acknowledge that pure capitalism can seem pretty evil. It can abuse the employees and dupe unsuspecting customers. That is why we have regulations. We regulate restaurants to prevent them from serving dirty food from unsanitary kitchens.  The customer has little view of the back of the store and without those regulations hundreds of people could become sick and die before finding the source.  We regulate polluters ability to destroy the local environment as the consumers have the little ability to make an educated choice about a company's environmental impact. We also prevent monopolies from hijacking the market without competition, forcing out potential rivals, driving up prices and driving down wages. Every Walmart appears to be a shrine to capitalism, which has driven out local mom-and-pop stores and continues to pay criminally low wages as workers must rely on welfare and food stamps.  If Walmart paid their employees a living wage, we could probably cut those budget items in half.  So while capitalism provides the opportunity to growth and new ideas, we must admit that there needs to be constraints.

If you disagree with the previous paragraph, think about the following question: Have you ever felt screwed over by a company as a customer or as an employee? That is why we need regulations.

Likewise, socialism has both good and bad. Generally, dictators use the language of populism to obtain power, hiding their fascist tendencies behind a veil of socialist agendas. If you immediately express your contempt for socialism, I have some more questions for you to consider.  Do you respect firefighters and police officers? We can agree that they are a social good, paid for by tax dollars instead of dues. Are you expecting to receive Social security and Medicare? Also examples of successful socialist programs. You pay taxes through out your life and receive the benefit later on. Those are all socialist programs even if you don't want to believe it. 

The meme that I saw [all memes really], lacks the subtlety of modern life. To simply say that capitalism or socialism is always good or always bad misses the nuance. The people that share this picture on Facebook always point to Venezuela and conveniently forget the balance of capitalism and socialism that we have here in the United States.  It's the balance between these two economic systems which has made America great, propelling us to being the world's great superpower.