Capitalism, Socialism, and Communism Compared - YouTube

I'm Mr. Beat

and now I'm gonna say some dirty words

Capitalism. Socialism, and Communism

Hey, will you stop censoring me?

Doppelganger: Oh sorry.

Thank you. Now, capitalism, socialism, and communism

Steven: woah woah woah watch your language I am offended

Anyway, let’s first hear what the critics have to say about capitalism.

Piers Morgan: You're very, very successful

a very rich filmmaker

among everything else you do

In a way, that is capitalism

I mean, you've got a business

Michael Moore: Is it really?

Isn't it in its purest sense?

What pure? There's nothing pure about capitalism.

Is it not, though?

NonCompete: Unfortunately, over time capitalism has spun wildly out of control

transforming rapidly from a force for positive social change

into a brutal system of oppression

that's holding humanity back

and destroying billions of lives.

BadMouse Productions: So how many people in contemporary society

let alone capitalism's long history

died due to this economic system?

Capitalism is global.

and around the world 8 million people die from lack of clean drinking water

Roughly another 8 million die from hunger.

And on top of that, another 3 million died from vaccine-treatable diseases.

Adding in room for error,

let's just take it to a grand total

of 20 million deaths per year

due to the lack of food, water, and vaccines.

Uh-huh, nice. Now let’s hear all the great things people have to say about socialism.

Karl Rove: Socialism has failed every place it has been attempted.

Greg Gutfield: How many people under 30 and 40

know so little about the legacy of socialism and the suffering it's caused?

Socialism is grim

It's old

and it offers you no tomorrow.

Joe Rogan: Socialism is going to win.

What does that mean and what is socialism?

Peter Schiff: Well it could win at the polls. That's the problem

It's very intoxicating.

to people who don't know any better.

Joe: Cause rich people they have too much money. Peter: Yeah

The interesting thing about socialism is that no matter

how many times it fails

people expect it to succeed.

Watter: Now let's look at the facts about socialism, shall we?

Venezuela, a rich country blessed with bountiful natural resources

is now a hell hole.

Tucker: What happened in Venezuela?

They call that democratic socialism.

but they don't have toilet paper.

and it's less equal than ever.

Glenn Beck: As we're now seeing in Venezuela

all of the promises that the Left told us

and we warned against

now are shattered

People are starving to death.

Venezuela, eh? Ok. Ok. Well, what about communism?

Prager: Why is communist so much less a term of revulsion

than Nazi?

Communists killed more than 70 million people in China

More than 20 million people in the Soviet Union

not including about 5 million Ukrainians.

and almost 1 out of every 3 Cambodians.

And communists enslaved entire nations.

In Russia, Vietnam, China, eastern Europe, North Korea, Cuba, and much of central Asia

They ruined the lives of well over a billion people.

Stossel: Guevara in the name of communism killed lots of people.

He said "We executed many people by firing squad

without knowing if they are fully guilty."

Lauren Southern: Why is it that the atrocities of communism

are almost completely ignored by our teachers?

and dismissed as just a blip in history by most?

100 million people perished

under communist dictators

in the last century.

Alright then Communism. So it appears a lot of people have strong opinions about these three words.

But there is confusion about what they mean.

These three words have also been weaponized.

People often use these three words to attack and marginalize others. People misuse these three words.

They conflate them with other words.

For example, often people seamlessly interchange communism and totalitarianism, or capitalism and fascism, as if they mean the exact same thing.

Dude, you’re mixing an economic system and a political system, for crying out loud.

And there’s also this false dichotomy.

Tomi: There are some...Democrats mostly...who think socialism should replace capitalism.

Do you think that's ever going to happen?

Replace capitalism with socialism? Who the heck is proposing that?

Do you think that's ever gonna happen?

You know what? I’m starting to get worked up about this, we need some dictionary definitions dangit. I need a dictionary! Can anybody get me a dictionary please?

Thank you. Lydia: Your welcome.

Alright, let’s look up the definition of capitalism and put that up on the screen, ok?

Capitalism: an economic system characterized by private or corporate ownership of capital goods, by investments that are determined by private decision, and by prices, production, and the distribution of goods that are determined mainly by competition in a free market

Ok, so let’s break this down.

First of all, it says “economic system,” meaning a way resources get around and trade stuff.

By private or corporate ownership...ok let’s just say private ownership of capital goods.

Ok, what are capital goods? Goods used to make other goods.

Alright...let’s go on. By investments

so basically folks trying to get rich that are determined by private decision, prices, production and distribution of goods determined by competition in a free market….ok let’s simplify that.

Folks trying to get rich by competing with each other. Everything else is implied, isn’t it?

If you are competing in a free market, there is no government stopping you when trying to make money.

You are making decisions on prices, production, and distribution in order to make a profit, and you are competing with others for customers. This is capitalism.

Steven: woah woah woah...capitalism? More like late stage capitalism.

It will die soon you greedy scum of the earth capitalist pig. All you care about is yourself.

Come at me bro. Anyway, capitalism has been around for hundreds of years.

By the 1500s it really caught on and there has been no turning back.

A word used as an insult lately probably more so than capitalism is the word socialism.

Steven: woah woah woah so now you’re a dirty socialist.

You know, socialism killed 100 million people, I mean. Venezuela? Hello?

Well crap. We’ve got three different definitions in the dictionary, ok?

Socialism: 1. a theory or system of social organization that advocates the vesting of the ownership and control of the means of production and distribution, of capital, land, etc., in the community as a whole.

2. procedure or practice in accordance with this theory. (Ok well we don’t have to go over this definition, do we?)

3. (in Marxist theory) the stage following capitalism in the transition of a society to communism, characterized by the imperfect implementation of collectivist principles.

So first, it’s a theory OR a system.

Why is socialism considered a theory and capitalism not? Probably because it’s never been fully practiced.

But it is another economic system. But instead of private or corporate ownership we are talking about the community as a whole as the owners.

With capitalism, it’s about owning capital goods.

But with socialism, it’s about owning the production, distribution, land, everything...and everyone owns that.

The community as a whole makes economic decisions, not the individual.

Based on that definition, have we ever had that?

No, not really, not since farming became a thing at least.

Now, that third definition is the historical definition of socialism, and often leads to even more confusion about what socialism actually means.

Marxist theory? Yeah, socialism, even though it had origins throughout human history, was first articulated by two dudes named Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.

Get it? MARXist because it was named after him?

To this day, Engels is still mad it’s called Marxism and not Engelism, by the way.

Anyway, the two criticized capitalism and said it would eventually be overthrown by a new economic system, aka socialism, and eventually communism.

Socialism was just a transition from capitalism to communism.

Marx and Engels said socialism would consist of everybody owning the means of production, and that the workers would control and manage it.

By the way, Marx is the reason why we even have the terms socialism and communism.

Steven: Communism? Don’t even try to talk about communism you un-American Commie.

I always knew you were a Red. You probably are a spy for the Soviet Union.

aren't you? Mr. Beat: But I have to give a definition of it to educate the viewer.

Steven: You’d HAVE to do a whole lot MORE living in a communist society!

Well not necessarily. Ok, so the dictionary says….

communism: 1: a system in which goods are owned in common and are available to all as needed

2: a theory advocating elimination of private property

Now remember, that’s “communism” with a lowercase c.

So pretty similar to socialism, ain’t it?

Again, it’s both a system and theory. Again, a theory originally by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.

Goods are owned in common, meaning, you take what you want and you share everything.

And yeah, no private property. Pretty ambitious and unrealistic in this day and age.

Have we ever seen communism in practice? Well, we’ve seen it tried, but it failed miserably.

It needed totalitarianism, and I don’t think Marx would have been a fan of the Soviet Union or China because he wanted a stateless society.

Steven: That’s what a communist WOULD say, you dirty socialist.

Anyway, so let’s review, shall we?

Capitalism is an economic system in which there’s private ownership of capital goods, and competition in a free market.

Socialism is an economic system but also a social and political theory, where the means of production is owned by the community as a whole.

This usually means the government has to step in, which is why you hear libertarian-type folks freak out about it.

Communism is an economic system but also a social and political theory, where private property is completely gone and we share everything. Cool?

Ok, ok. But here’s the thing. Those three words have been so tainted over the years,

and their definitions have morphed and evolved, to a point where they're almost meaningless, ok? They aren’t always just talking about economics.

Karl Marx was talking about a political upheaval just as much as he was talking about an economic one.

Which is why it’s better to learn about economic systems in a more accurate away.

In reality, when looking at factors of production, or what goes into producing stuff, there are four economic systems.

Number one...Traditional economy- customs and traditions guide the factors of production. It’s informal, and there’s usually no currency.

Number two...Command economy- It’s top down. A central authority, usually the government, guides the factors of production. There is usually little input from the people.

Number three...Market economy- I mean, capitalism in its purest form, basically. Consumers generally guide the factors of production. It’s bottom up.

Number four...Mixed economy- A mix of all the other three, man. And guess what? It’s what the majority of the world has.

Sometimes the government steps in to try to manage the economy.

Sometimes it’s a completely free market.

Sometimes it’s even based on traditional values.

Steven Crowder: Because there's a difference between a public good and a commodity.

Could you explain the difference between a public good and an economy?

Yusef: Well, in economics a public good is

a good that I believe is non-excludable and non-rivalrous

so...exactly...yeah

It’s also important to know the difference between the four categories of goods in economics.

It looks like this on a table.

So we've got rivalrous, meaning if someone consumes a good it prevents someone else from consuming it.

It’s zero-sum game.

Excludable meaning you can prevent consumers who haven’t paid from accessing it.

So on the table here, we've got private goods

Examples include food, clothing, cars, personal electronics.

that are excludable and rivalrous

And we've got club goods

like cinemas, private parks, satellite TV

that are excludable and non-rivalrous

And then we've got Non-Excludable. This column here has

the rivalrous, which is common goods.

Fish stocks, timber, coals, as examples.

and public goods here with the non-excludable, non-rivalrous

such as air and national defense.

I mean the public goods spot here. Let's pay close attention to that area.

many people do start to freak out and call somebody a socialist when people want to add things to the public goods category...such as healthcare.

Is healthcare a public good? That’s a great debate to have, but one for another video, as it’s time to wrap this baby up.

So there you have it.

the difference between capitalism, socialism, and communism.

Steven: Well...I think you’re a fascist, actually.

Nope, that’s another video I made.

And remember, when folks use those three words, ask them what they mean when they say them, because chances are, their definitions are all over the place.

Thanks for watching.

A shout out to my my newest Patreon supporter, Soud Alkuwari, who pledged at the George Washington level.Thank you Soud!

My next video is actually be released on Saturday, November 24th, as it will be part of a huge collaboration with a bunch of other history Youtubers.

You’re gonna like the way it looks. I guarantee it.