Communism & Capitalism Notes

1. Communism &
Capitalism

2. What is capitalism?
•Economic system.
•Believes in individual ownership and
competition.
•The theory is that when everyone is
selfish, it benefits everyone.
•Adam Smith is “the” capitalist.

4. What’s good about capitalism?
•Freedom, choice.
•You can work wherever, buy whatever,
and pretty much do whatever.
•If you’re successful, you can be very
successful. Think Bill Gates.

5. What’s bad about capitalism?
•No “safety net.”
•If you’re unsuccessful, you can be very
unsuccessful. Think about the poor.
•Big gap between rich and poor.

6. What is communism?
•Economic system.
•Believes in collective (group) ownership
and a planned economy.
• The theory is that everybody pools their
resources and labor to evenly distribute
everything.
•Karl Marx is “the” communist.

7. Communist Manifesto
1.Abolition of property
2.Heavy, progressive taxes
3.Abolition of inheritance
4.Confiscation of property
of all emigrants and
rebels
5.Central banking
6.State-controlled
communication and
transportation
7.State-controlled
education of the children

8. Marxism
•Marx and Engels
studied the
history of the
world’s
economies
Basic
Communism
Feudalism
Capitalism
Communism
!!!!
Socialism
•They
believed they
discovered
an inevitable
pattern

9. Stage 1: Primitive Communism
•This is how humans lived together
before the emergence of large-
scale agriculture.
•Small hunting and gathering tribes
•Everything was shared amongst
the tribe-food, jobs, belongings.
•No one owned land and no one is
exploited for their labor.
•Eventually one group comes to
power which leads to Feudalism…

10. Stage 2:
Primitive Communism - Feudalism
•Under feudalism, a king becomes ruler
over all the people. Exploitation
begins.
•The people are kept uneducated and
told that god chose the king to rule. (?)
•The king gives land and privileges to
nobles who rule the people for him (?)
•As trade develops, some people get
richer. This leads to Capitalism…

11. Stage 3: Feudalism - Capitalism
•Business owners or capitalists get richer
while the workers do the work.
•Capitalists get more power to serve their
own interests.
•Capitalism creates a large working-class
of people who organize, create unions,
and demand changes. This leads to
Socialism…

12. Stage 4: Capitalism-Socialism
•In the Socialist revolution all the rulers lose power,
wealth, and privilege.
•Workers take control of the country to produce
things for everyone. No one is exploited.
•Nothing is made for profit therefore all people
benefit.
•These ideas spread across the world to create
Communism…

13. Stage 5: Socialism-Communism
•Capitalists will put up a fight but the will of
the people will always win.
•Everyone now works together, war
eliminated, and armies are obsolete.
•Everything is provided by the people so $
becomes a thing of the past.
•All human activity goes towards benefiting
each other-allowing all to live their lives to
the fullest.

14. Communism/Socialism:
What’s the difference?
•Socialism is, “from each according to their
ability, to each according to their DEEDS.”
–Socialism is the stage between Capitalism and
Communism. It builds upon the previous system
(Capitalism) by nationalizing the “means of
production” (i.e. corporations, resources, banks, etc.),
but not by making everyone equal. People are paid
wages based on several factors (social need,
difficulty, amount of schooling required, etc.), so not
everyone will make the same wage.
•Communism is “from each according to their
ability to each according to their NEEDS.”

17. What’s good about communism?
•Security, basic needs met.
• Everyone would have a job, house, health
care, etc.

18. What’s bad about communism?
•Lack of choice
•No reward for being a better worker or
punishment for being a slacker.
•Everyone expected to be the same.

19. How’s this related to the IndRev?
•Adam Smith’s capitalism dominated the
IndRev. Led to bad working conditions.
•Karl Marx wrote about communism as
solution to capitalism’s problems.
–Marx said the workers would get fed up and
overthrow their governments and start
communism.