Capitalism (Pro) VS. Socialism (Con)

Sorry for cutting this one late. I had a busy Friday and Saturday. Rebuttal: “By far the biggest flaw in capitalism is inequality. In this system the more you work, the more you earn makes an incredible wealth gap.” My opponent's argument is centered around the inequality that capitalism causes, yet Con fails to address the fact no matter the system, there will ALWAYS be inequality. Socialism is an idealist system, based on complete income equality, but I personally would argue that even with Socialism, the wealth would be quickly be seized by the government. “Wealth had been held in the name of the state, but the USSR began to disintegrate, there was a frenzy to seize a share of that wealth before someone else stole it. Largely the members of the Communist Party seized the wealth.” {1} The government seizing wealth for themselves. That is not very Socialist, now is it? How can you say that the wealth would be equal, when Socialist Countries decide that the money would be best in their pockets? That is not Socialism. That is CORRUPTION. A direct cause of Socialism. “But that's not all. 80% of THE WHOLE POPULATION lives on 10$ or less A DAY “ Well, in first world countries, we have a significant portion of the total wealth in the world. Why? Capitalism. Yes, there is an income gap in the world, but could Socialism fix this? Could Socialism fix this? No. As stated before, Socialism leads to Governmental Corruption. The wealth would not belong to everyone, it would be in the hands of the government. My point is that this wage gap likely will never be fixed. But a socialist society would never work! The income will ALWAYS stay with the government in Socialism. “In a capitalist society, as we see today, money is the biggest motivation. The problem with that is that it takes away from what should really be the motivation- helping. “ Ah, I see, so in a world where people are nasty and could screw me over at ANY moment, my main motivation should be to help other people over my family? This statement is flawed because many of us who work hard to earn our keep, should make other people a larger priority than my family? I am not saying that people should not be helped, but I am saying that each person's first priority should be themselves and their families, then other people. “This is clearly shown in the example of Martin Shkreli” Okay, I’m not going to justify this awful man. But I will point out that without capitalism, a MUCH cheaper competitor drug would not exist! “Almost a month after word got out that drug-company CEO Martin Shkreli had jacked up the price of a critical drug by more than 5,000%, a different kind of pharma company has stepped up to provide a cheaper alternative. Imprimis Pharmaceuticals, a compounding pharmaceutical company, announced Thursday that it is now providing a customizable formulation to compete with Daraprim, a drug used to treat a parasitic infection called toxoplasmosis in people with compromised immune systems. Shkreli jacked up the cost of Daraprim from $13.50 to $750 a pill seemingly overnight. Imprimis is charging $99 for a 100-pill bottle of the drug, or $0.99 a pill. “ {2} The wonderful thing about capitalism is that actions like these allow for competition. So in a capitalist society, some people can STILL be interested in helping people! My opponent makes a large generalization, and overlooks the wonderful work done by rich capitalists! Look at Bill Gates, or Mark Zuckerberg, who is going to “give away 99% of their shares in Facebook to selected causes through the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.” {3} “No one would be sacrificing saving lives for money” Except for the government. I don’t think my opponent has a realistic grasp on how people work. People will be greedy with socialism or without Socialism. There will ALWAYS be inequality. Capitalism is about turning this lemon into lemonade. So now I ask the audience. Would you prefer to have a system with lots of good and some bad, or a system that only has bad? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Argument 3: Capitalism is the more democratic system. Democracy is about the people choosing what is best for them in the form of voting in their leaders to represent their interest. In the definition of Socialism, “Major industries are owned and controlled by the government rather than by individual people” Wouldn’t it be fair to say that the government deciding what is the best for society is very Authoritarian? The government just says what industry they will focus on, even if the majority of people don’t support it. That is not democratic. That is a very totalitarian system, that gives the government way too much power. I will provide an example of a place we both live in. “On Saturday, figures were released from a new poll by Mainstreet/Postmedia that show 60 per cent of Albertans are against Bill 6.” {4} So even though here in Alberta, we are supposed to be in a democracy, where the people choose what they support, we have a government that does not even listen to it’s own citizens! Our socialist government does NOT support the interests of the people. The government just saying what is right, and what is not right goes against the very principles of democracy! Capitalism on the other hand is a system where production is in control of the individual. The person gets to choose what they think is right, and allows them to prosper as a result. Furthermore, I will go back to cite historical examples of government authoritarianism among socialist states. Modern examples would include China, Laos and North Korea. Past examples would include the USSR and the Warsaw Pact, Yugoslavia, Mongolia, Libya, Egypt and Iraq {5}. All of these countries have/had a very authoritarian government, often with just one party in charge. A one party state is not democratic, but all of these governments tried to control production as well, so not only did they not grant their citizens civil and political powers, they also had no economic rights. Another undemocratic thing caused by Socialism is that it destroys freedom of speech. “Why is there ridiculous government propaganda in nations like North Korea? Why are most schools, papers, and colleges run by liberals in the United States? Why do liberals often try to disrupt conservative speakers on college campuses? Why are there such extreme speech codes in Canada that it practically makes some conservative arguments illegal? Why does speaking out against the government risk imprisonment in China and the old Soviet Union? Because socialism requires protection, propaganda, intimidation, and darkness to survive. Socialism can't survive honest, informed debate about its merits among people who are free to choose or reject it because it would not survive the conversation.” {6} Need I continue? Argument 4: Socialist Economies cannot compete with Capitalist Economies. Due to constraints with the character limit, this will be a short argument. We humans like to have more stuff. This is true. An example would be cell phones. With capitalism these phones are produced by us. With socialism, these commodities would be produced by the state or not produced at all. When the people produce the goods themselves, they are able to outpace the governments of socialist countries. This will cause the capitalist countries to have a better economy, and a freer, better society. This means that the socialist country may collapse (like the USSR) or have a much more mixed economy (like China.) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Again, I apologize for the length of the previous argument. I am busy for the rest of today, and will likely have little-to-no time to work on it. I hope to expand on this argument in the next round! Anyways, good luck on your argument. DarthKirones. Sources: {1}:https://books.google.ca... Page 92 {2}http://www.businessinsider.com... {3}https://en.wikipedia.org... {4}http://globalnews.ca... {5}https://en.wikipedia.org... {6}http://townhall.com...