Originally Posted by lotsofface
Communism is ideal. It would be awesome. But it denies the crucial economic factor of incentives. You can't rewrite communism, you'll just make it socialism. Stick to capitalism man. There are incentives, and with incentives and competition, comes quality and a natural system of regulation. When you remove these with communism, you are setting yourself up for defeat.
It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the baker, and the brewer that we expect our dinners but from their regards to their own self-interest. In layman's term, society flourishes off of the greed of it's citizens.
I've always found that a bit of a dubious claim, to be honest.. I'd say we first explore that premise..
So the question then becomes whether those are the only possible incentives, or whether these are simply the incentives we've been brought up with in this system.
Sure, the economy thrives on greed. But is that because the only possible incentive is greed, or is it because greed is the only incentive that works in this system?
As such, does the possibility of other incentives exist? Are there incentives that do not operate on the reward, the extrinsic value of a certain act or service, but that operate on the purely intrinsic value of the act or service? Is a system impossible where, in stead of the butcher striving for perfection because he'll make more money when he does make things perfect, the butcher strives perfection for the intrinsic value of things being perfection?
If these incentives don't exist, then what about volunteerism? What about charities? What about the people who do things 'because they believe in them'? What about the people who get into certain subjects simply because they're inspired by it, because they find it interesting or fun? What about those billionnaires who do stuff 'just for teh lulz', in stead of continuing with the things that make them money? Etc. etc.
When you take money out of the picture, like in the examples above, aren't there still incentives?
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