11.7.3: Ideologies of Capitalism and Socialism

 11.7.3: Ideologies of Capitalism and Socialism 

Not only do capitalism and socialism have different approaches to producing and distributing goods, but they also represent opposing belief systems. Capitalists believe that market forces should determine both products and prices. They also believe that profits are good for humanity. The potential to make money stimulates people to produce and distribute goods, as well as to develop new products. Society benefits and the result is a more abundant supply of goods at cheaper prices. Socialists take an opposite view of profits. They consider profits to be immoral. An item’s value is based on the work that goes into it, said Karl Marx. The only way there can be profit, he stressed, is by paying workers less than the value of their labor. Profit, he said, is the excess value that has been withheld from workers. Socialists believe that the government should protect workers from this exploitation. To do so, the government should own the means of production, using them not to generate profit but to produce items that match people’s needs, not their ability to pay. Capitalists and socialists paint each other in such stark colors that each perceives the other system as one of exploitation. Capitalists believe that socialists violate people’s basic right to make their own decisions and to pursue opportunity. Socialists believe that capitalists violate people’s basic right to be free from poverty. With each side claiming moral superiority while viewing the other as a threat to its very existence, the last century witnessed the world split into two main blocs. In what was known as the Cold War, the West armed itself to defend and promote capitalism, the East to defend and promote socialism. Gallery Propaganda Posters

Propaganda to influence our ideas surrounds us, but most propaganda is covert, difficult to recognize. During economic-political conflicts such as World War II, much propaganda moves into the open. The anti-Japanese poster on the first slide is from the United States. The anti-allies (the British-American-Russian coalition) poster on the second slide is from Germany. It says: "Behind the fiendish enemy is The Jew." Racism was rampant on both sides: The ugly rich Jew making money from the war and the ugly sadistic Japanese raping white women. Credits: Hi-Story/Alamy Stock Photo; Pictures From History/Newscom