…it seems here that capitalism gets human nature right. This is one of the reasons capitalism appears to be more successful than communism. Communism seems to miss the mark on human nature. Ironically by being too optimistic and hopeful, even Christian. People don’t tend to work hard for the good of others. Saints might do that, but normal people don’t. Normal people are lazy and like to free ride on the system. Just ask any Children’s minister at church how easy it is to get people to teach Sunday School. Everyone likes to drop their kids off at Sunday School. But fewer actually step up to take a turn teaching. Free riding is human nature.

…while communism gets human nature wrong about our work ethic (i.e., we’d rather work for ourselves rather than for others) capitalism gets human nature wrong when it comes to acquisitiveness and fair play. It’s true that capitalism creates productivity. But it doesn’t reliably reward virtue. In fact, since capitalism mainly rewards success within a competitive environment we’ll often find that “good guys finish last.” We call this corruption and greed.

These are quotes from Richard Beck’s recent post. Go read the rest of Richard Beck’s ramblings on Capitalism, Socialism and Politics here.

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Painting above by Drew Beam

Tags:capitalismChristianityCommunismgreedmoneyRichard BecksocialismUtopianism