In Reply to: Selfishness and capitalism posted by Jim Soldini on May 02, 1996 at 11:20:21:
:
: It is good to be selfless. Selflessness is at the core of heroism,
: kindness, love and manners. I am willing to be selfless to those who
: are selfless to me. People who are selfless to me are friends, lovers
: and family - less so strangers; even less competitors. Masochists are
: able to be selfless to those indeferent or even unkind to them. Alas,
: the world is too short on masochists to allow selfless alternatives
: to capitalism to work.
: The selfish underpinnings of capitalism is what makes it practical.
: In a world of stangers you can rely on selfishness when all else
: fails. Everybody understands selfish rules even if they disagree with
: them. You can rely on selfishness, but alas you cannot rely on
: kindness.
: For this reason I believe we must count on capitalism to organize
: humanity best. Other systems are more aesthetic, apealing, beautiful,
: hopeful and inspiring, but they work less well in the actual world.It is not possible to rule out alternatives to capitalism because very
few have been tried. Only a real socialist alternative will
work because it is the only political system which smashes the
ruling class. It will never work until there is a revolution
and the bosses and state are overthrown. This was not the case
in the Soviet Union and this is the reason why the Soviet Union
was never socialist.