1. Capitalism is very similar to Feudalism. Under the original Feudal system tenants were the serfs of the rich landlords to whom they had to pay tithes. Under the new Feudalism employees are the serfs of Fat Rat owners/controllers of companies. The new Fat Rats don't have the trouble of collecting tithes in kind, they take what they want from the profits of their companies first then divide what's left between their serfs.
2. It fails large sections of the population.
3. Capitalists cheat their employees by keeping all the capital appreciation of their companies to themselves rather than distributing it fairly to all the members of the company whose work contributed to the company's increase in value.
4. The family is the competitive unit of Capitalism?
5. Capitalism is designed to enable the rich, corrupt and exploitative classes to prosper and trap poor decent people in hopeless, depressing circumstances.
6. Capitalism is based on greed and struggling to assert superiority.
7. Capitalism isn't working for this country, it is reducing us to dependency on the charity of other countries. Sordid, fat, rabid rat tycoons whose only interest is accumulating ever more disgusting wealth for themselves are selling our assets into foreign control so that they can lead sybaritic lives on the proceeds. It has to be stopped.

COMMUNISM

1. The essential feature of Communism is the common ownership of all (or nearly all) property.
2. From each according to his ability and to each according to his needs is it's second doctrine.
3. Under Communism the market is replaced by central planning of production and distribution, this can be (and usually is) it's Achilles heel.
4. Communism, in it's pure form, is arguably the highest form of civilisation.
5. One of the closest approximations to Communism might be found in monastic communities, (except that it is then combined with religion). The Amish Christians in the USA share the ownership of all (or nearly all?) property and seem to thrive and prosper, they are farmers, very religious and live in a Luddite way eschewing most modern technology, including TVs, cars and tractors, (I think).
6. Some people who have visited Cuba recently seem to think it is a wonderful place. The people aren't wealthy but they are happy. This is probably because all the poisonous greedy bastards who used to make their lives a misery have gone to Miami, Florida's monument to self-indulgence, vulgarity and excess.
7. The form of Communism practised in Russia was based on Karl Marx's economic and social theories adapted by Lenin.
8. The Russian version of Communism was very successful in some ways. At the time of the revolution in 1917, Russia was predominately a peasant economy but by the Second World War it was able, with some assistance from the UK, USA etc., to play a very large part in the defeat of Hitler then, without the benefit of assistance from the Marshall Plan, recovered to become the world's second super power sometime in the 1950s. This success was obtained at great cost to many millions of individual Russians who lost their lives in purges, massacres, gulags and the initial defeats in the war.
9. Why did Communism fail? Because the people who became the leaders of Communist countries were largely corrupt and incompetent dictators rather than real Communists. Above all, they pursued the foolish policies of threatening to spread Communism world-wide and trying to match the military power of the United States, this was unnecessary. A combination of Communism with a degree of democracy and a proper constitution, so that corrupt or incompetent individuals in positions of power could always be removed, might be more successful.
10. Another reason for Russian Communism's eventual failure is apparently that Marx's economic theory was deeply flawed and the Russians were slow to notice this. Marx considered the value of a product to be solely the cost of the labour that went into it's making and refused to consider interest on capital as a cost, this caused a great misallocation of resources because it caused communist planners to disregard time as a factor in making investment decisions. Among other things, it caused hydro-electric power stations, because of their zero fuel cost, to be preferred over the thermal type although the latter can be built much more quickly and start giving a return on investment much sooner. (Harry Schwarz, Introduction to "Marx On Economics" by Robert Freedman, Pelican,1962).

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