On the off-topic:
When I was 21, I was all game for heated arguments about literally anything. Now that I'm 33, I came to realize that it doesn't really matter what I say or think because, well, the world is filled with over 6 billion individuals like me of which half lives in Asia. I can count maybe 20 people that I actually bother to argue with (people that can accept a second opinion), because I know them personally. It is my only wish that those 6 billion people move forward in a positive way, not just for themselves but for all the people next to them. Will there be treason, lying, cheating, theft, bullying. murder? Obviously yes, these are valid and unavoidable parts of the game.
What you guys are arguing about is a question that cannot be easily answered. Both pure capitalism and pure socialism require a superhuman, übermensch society (the real concept, not the Nazi twisted one) in which the individual strives to make himself/herself fifty notches above the average. Here, however, in the real world, that's impossible to achieve. Superhuman activity gets watered down in the masses of average folk, and that's how its supposed to be, because it's normal and real. An individual might be 300 years ahead of his time, but the society will drag him back. But not completely. The "not completely" part is the reason we have all these things that we take for granted (electricity, industrial clothing, hot water from tap). Some cultures achieved this by socialism, nacional-socialism (they had some very advanced and smart concepts, one wouldn't believe), capitalism or by some other "ism". It doesn't really matter which one achieved it.
You might be surprised by this fact, but I do not measure the quality of a society by its economic or political compass. If a farmer with 4 years of primary school knows what's the Mendelev's periodic table or who Johann Sebastian Bach was or what's the name of the calendar they use in his country, I don't really care if it was pure capitalism or pure socialism that achieved that. A human being gets richer by his own knowledge and wisdom, not by fanatically defending a (by the laws of our cosmos) very abstract concept of whether you should be allowed to push little green papers or someone else will push them for you. It's literally as important as whether you will play Risk or Monopoly on the New year's eve party. Both capitalism and socialism are trivial concepts compared to the essential concepts of every human being: survive, evolve, reproduce yourself and your experience. I wouldn't say they don't matter, because they do, but opposed opinions of this magnitude that are in the world today are a product of another person's opinion, aka PROPAGANDA. Brainwashing that has been doing its job very throroughly on both sides of the iron curtain. The only difference is, western propaganda was a sweet candy, while the eastern one was a bitter pill. Human being slike sweet and fat, so I guess the West go that one right. 1:0 for West. Huzzah.
Have a nice 2010.
