Reflection on sources.

My sources may be biased, but they are credible. The biased sources had many facts in common with the ones on EBCOhost. There were many websites that had information on my topic, so it was not hard to find answers to my questions. Obviously the best source was EBCOhost, but there were others like the cia.gov and buzzel, that help a lot. The most biased source I had was peoplesworld.org. They had articles on every question I had.

Reflection on Process

Overall this was a great learning experience. I am extremely proud of my Blog. There were times that were difficult, and times that were not, but in the end it was worth the time and effort. The best part of this project was reading the articles, and finding information about my topic. Finding pictures that supported my side was not easy to do. The main search engine I used was Google images, they had a vast amount of images to use. I must have changed my wallpaper over five times during the making of my Blog. The only thing that I encountered that was challenging was finding none-biased sources. My topic is a very controversial one so it was difficult to find an article in which the author did not inject his own opinion into it. One thing I would change is trying to find less biased articles.

Work Cited

"Capitalism." Anti-capitalism/anti-imperialism. Web. 10 Nov 2010. <http://www.cathtatedirect.com/files/imagecache/thumbnails/files/products/1698_capitalisml.jpg

Clore, Dan. "Socialism and Capitalism." N.p., 15/7/2008. Web. 8 Nov 2010.
http://www.nolanchart.com/article4246.html.

"Captialism." Demotavaional Pictures. Web. 14 Nov 2010. <es.wordpress.com/2010/10/demotivational-posters-capitalism.jpg>.

"Capitalism distribution of wealth." Web. 15 Nov 2010. http://www.philstockworld.com/wp-content/uploads/top%201%20percent%20pie%20chart_2.png.

"Capitalism- This is your Reality." Web. 8 Nov 2010.
http://www.hermes-press.com/capitalism2.jpg.

Hill , Paul . "Corp. shuts down hospital, puts profits first." Peoplesworld.org March 23 2010 : n. pag. Web. 20 Nov 2010. http://www.peoplesworld.org/corp-shuts-down-hospital-puts-profits-first/.

"Pros and Cons of Capitalism." www.buzzle.com. buzzle, n.d. Web. 20 Nov 2010. http://www.buzzle.com/articles/pros-and-cons-of-capitalism.html.

Marx, Karl. Communist Manifesto. 1849. 1-2. Print.
Sanbonmatsu, John. " Why Capitalism Shouldn't Be Saved.." EBSCOhost n. pag. Web. 16 Nov 2010. http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=19&hid=8&sid=a19d6cec-8f19-40d5-86a2-813786eb5216%40sessionmgr15&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=aqh&AN=39753533.

Webb , Sam. "A reality check on Wall Street." Peoplesworld.org. People Before Profit , April 29 2010. Web. 16 Nov 2010. <http://peoplesworld.org/a-reality-check-on-wall-street/>.

Reflection on findings

I have found out a lot about Communism and Capitalism in making this blog. Both systems have their "Pros and Cons". The main point to the systems is that "Capitalism" is for the rich, while "Communism" is for the poor. In Capitalism the rich simply get richer and push the poor down. (Web) The unemployment in the Soviet Union was little to none, compared to ours in the 60s. Marx wrote his book on Communism in 1849, however Adam Smith wrote the Wealth of Nations much earlier. This greatly impacted their view on economic systems.

Though this search I have learned some very important facts about Communism and Capitalism. But one of the most important is that, Capitalism in its very nature anti-democratic (Sanbonmatsu). Capitalism deprives the poor the right to vote by controlling the outcome with money and power.
It was very surprising how much this is being currently debated whether online or in politics today. I feel that I have learned everything about my topic that I can at this time, it took weeks of research to find the supporting evidence for my argument. I am still for Socialism, if not even more now

Finding Paragraph #3

What system gives more rights to its citizens?

In a society the people should come first. Making sure the rights of the people are protected should be the state's first priority. Both systems have their own "Bill of Rights". The Soviet Union for example had a bill of rights but they called it the Helsinki Accords. While they may not have the right to own a house, does anyone but the extreme rich own a house or does the banks own them all? The vast majority of people do not relize the power corpratoions have over our rights. Its not rare for a corpration to practice "Emminent domain" by convinceing the government that its in their best intrest. There are no rights that the United States promises in the constitution then Karl Marx stated in the Communist Manifesto.

Finding Paragraph #2

What system protects its citizens more?

It is the government’s job to protect its citizens, ether from outside attack or from mordacious products. Our Constitution says to promote the "general welfare" does that not include protecting us? The United States has some regulations on corporations to protect us, but they are loosely used. Toyota is a prime example of this; they are an outside based corporation. They sold us cars with “stuck” accelerators; they only released this to the public two years after they were sold. In a communistic society some goods will not be available to the public but at least they will be safe. Our safety should come over profits. Pharmaceutical companies want the public to get sick so that we will buy more medicine Communism has strict regulations on products, since everything is owned by the government it is easily controlled. They do not have to wait months for an indictment before they can search their financial records. The corporations can not only hurt us physically, they can hurt us fiscally. Though price gauging or outsourcing, they can make us homeless or starving.  

 What system is easier taken advantage of?

 People will always exploit one another, but when it comes to the exploitation of a person making an entire country collapse, it starts getting very important. In a capitalistic society it only takes a wealthy business to exploit a person. Were as in Animal Farm it took a military take over to overwork the system. What is more common, a military take over or a wealthy business man? Communism keeps order, while Capitalism inspires greed and chaos. The working class in a communistic society would stop the exploration of them self if given the power by a strong central government. The human race is inherently evil, but we should use a system which makes it harder to do heinous acts.

Finding Paragraph #1

What is a more moral system, Capitalism or Communism?



Immorality is not only visible to the to the victim. The Corporations know that they are hurting people by denying their workers basic human rights and treating them like machines. (Santos) Capitalism drains the lower class of their wealth and rights. 10% of our population controls over 60%, is it moral to deprive the poor of there rights and money? No, maybe wealth shouldn't be totally distributed but over half of it shouldn't belong to 10% of the population. Can greed ever moral? No no one has ever given money to the poor for good for reasons. Communism in its entirety a truly moral system, weather you believe in it or not, how can financial  equality ever be immoral? Some may say that if you work hard enough you can get anywhere in life, that is truly a lie told by the rich. There are some markets  totaly  monopolized, try opening your own video game store and see if gamestop doesn't take you over. Or try making your car and if Ford doesn't take you over, does that sound moral to you? 

Wordle #2

Qoute, Paraphrase and Citation #5

"Financial giants - Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo, Bank of America - sit at the apex of our financial system. And in that position (because of their connections, insider knowledge, bottomless pockets and strategic position in the global economy, and because of weak regulation), they are able to legally and illegally rig markets to their advantage.
More and more, their profits come from speculative and non-productive activities within the sphere of finance - packaging, buying, swapping and selling various kinds of financial instruments, most of which are only incidentally and remotely connected to the real economy of goods and services. To say that the financial system has turned into a gambling casino is pretty much on the mark."

The rich of the rich, are at the very top of our financial system. They got there only because of there connections, wealth, and weak regulation. Since they are so barely regulated they are able to "fix" the markets to their advantage. They use their immense influence and money to control the very bills that should regulate them. They are taking unneeded strains on our market just to turn out a profit.

Webb , Sam. "A reality check on Wall Street." Peoplesworld.org. People Before Profit , April 29 2010. Web. 16 Nov 2010. <http://peoplesworld.org/a-reality-check-on-wall-street/>.

Qoute, Paraphrase and Citation #4

    "CAPITALISM'S ANTAGONISM TOWARD POPULAR RULE IS STRUCTURAL — IT IS BUILT INTO THE political DNA of capitalism itself By nature, if not by design, capitalism is a system in which a small minority of individuals controls the wealth, labor, production, political power, and cultural expression of the whole of society. Under capitalism, the demos is permitted to exert only the mildest, most indirect of influences on the direction of state and society. All of the truly important decisions — the ones that concern what kinds of technologies and commodities get produced, what kinds of laws will be passed, and which wars should be fought (or whether any should be fought at all) — are effectively left in the hands of a small clique whose members are drawn from the ranks of what C. Wright Mills famously called "the power elite." No matter how many finance reform laws are passed in Congress, the enactment of new laws alone will never be sufficient to neutralize the tremendous discrepancy in power between the wealthy few and the ordinary many."

Capitalism deprives the right to vote from the working class. Anti-Democracy is intertwined with Capitalism. It is a system in witch a small amount of people, control everything in a society. The working class is does not realize that their every action is guided by an invisible hand. The Capitalists boast of their "Right to Ownership" but do we truly own anything in this country or does the bank? I believe the latter. There have been too many wars started because corporate greed.   

Sanbonmatsu, John. " Why Capitalism Shouldn't Be Saved.." EBSCOhost n. pag. Web. 16 Nov 2010. <http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=19&hid=8&sid=a19d6cec-8f19-40d5-86a2-813786eb5216%40sessionmgr15&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=aqh&AN=39753533>.    

Chart, Caption, Citation

This relates to my topic because, it shows how wealth in a Capitalistic society is distributed, or how its not. 10% of the population of the USA have over 60% of the wealth. Does that not frighten you? Well it should, especially in a country were money equals power.

  

"Capitalism distribution of wealth." Web. 15 Nov 2010. <http://www.philstockworld.com/wp-content/uploads/top%201%20percent%20pie%20chart_2.png>.

Quote, Caption, and Citation #3

"Captialism." Demotavaional Pictures. Web. 14 Nov 2010. <es.wordpress.com/2010/10/demotivational-posters-capitalism.jpg>.

BIBLIOGRAPHIC CITATION: "Captialism." Demotavaional Pictures. Web. 14 Nov 2010. <es.wordpress.com/2010/10/demotivational-posters-capitalism.jpg>. [NOTE: Italicize "Demotavaional Pictures"] PARENTHETICAL CITATION: ("Captialism")

Even if this picture is for comic relief, it still shows how ill
responsible the capitalistic corporations are. Capitalism will
rarely check their own products for saftey. Such as Toyota
and their "stuck" accelerators which they only informed the public
about, after they knew for two years. Or Haliburton with their inferor
concrete, which caused the golf oil spill. 

Quote, Paraphase, and Citation #3

"But not only has the bourgeoisie forged the weapons that bring death to itself; it has also called into existence the men who are to wield those weapons — the modern working class — the proletarians. In proportion as the bourgeoisie, i.e., capital, is developed, in the same proportion is the proletariat, the modern working class, developed — a class of labourers, who live only so long as they find work, and who find work only so long as their labour increases capital. These labourers, who must sell themselves piecemeal, are a commodity, like every other article of commerce, and are consequently exposed to all the vicissitudes of competition, to all the fluctuations of the market."

Marx, Karl. Communist Manifesto. 1849. 1-2. Print.


Although this was written in 1849, it is still very true in today's Capitalistic society. The bourgeoisie, have created the the working class, or the proletarians. The very people which capitalism has created will indeed destroy it. This quote, also defines what capitalism is doing to the lower class. When Marx states, "These labourers, who must sell themselves piecemeal, are a commodity..." He means that the labors, just barely get by with the price they are paid, are easy to come by and exploited. The working class is not given the proper medical care, so they do not live long enough to find work, and on the rare occasion they do, they are only employed if the businesses is making profits out off them.     

Che Guevara Speech on Imperialism (November 30, 1964)

Anti-Captialism Speech

Soviet National Anthem

Quote, paraphrase, and citation #2

http://www.peoplesworld.org/corp-shuts-down-hospital-puts-profits-first/

This article proves that corporations are not fit to control our health services, or any for that matter. The hospital corporation will never put “people before profit” doing this is key in the health care industry. Our health care should not be in the hands of a “Fat Cat” on Wall Street, no matter how hard he worked to get there. The people of Texas will now go without a major hospital because corporations thought they might lose some profit. Corporations will do anything for a better bottom line. The corporations’ motto is and always well be: “profits before people”.

This article proves that corporations are not fit to control our health services, or any for that matter. The hospital corporation will never put “people before profit” doing this is key in the health care industry. The people of Texas will now go without a major hospital because corporations thought they might lose some profit. Corporations will do anything for a better bottom line. The

Photo, caption, and citation #2

This picture shows what Capitalism is based on. It is based on the fact that evil and greedy people will help one another. A greedy corporation is not going to help their poorer neighbor. The failure of Capitalism is only seen when you look at the lower class. And that some people, no matter how hard the work or try to better themselves will never become successful.

"Capitalism." Anti-capitalism/anti-imperialism. Web. 10 Nov 2010. <http://www.cathtatedirect.com/files/imagecache/thumbnails/files/products/1698_capitalisml.jpg 

Paraphrase, Quote and Citation

Capitalism and Socialism are exact opposites. Both Socialism and Capitalism have been re-defined over the years. Capitalism by definition means, the ownership and control of the means of production by a higher, richer class. Socialism means, the ownership and control of the means of production by the workers of the business. The connotation of Capitalism is that the private ownership of the means of production, and that the state is not in control of prices of goods. While the connotation of the word Socialism is; the ownership and control of the means of production by the people as a whole, generally by means of the state, or that the state owns and regulates all trade. Under a socailst state, all prices and wages are regulated to insure the market is not "unfair".


Quote:
"One must be careful to make one's intended meaning known when using the terms "socialism" and "capitalism" (as well as related terms) because they have undergone polemic re-definition over the decades that can cause a great deal of confusion."

 Clore, Dan. "Socialism and Capitalism." N.p., 15/7/2008. Web. 8 Nov 2010.
<http://www.nolanchart.com/article4246.html>.

Photo, Caption, and Citation

This Is defining Capitalism, to which it really is. The cross made of money means that in a capitalistic society people worship money. The bombs at the top of the screen which are, Slavery, Greed, Death and Cruelty are all things that capitaism causes, or uses to gain more money or power. The reason the people are skeleton is that it is saying that the people who worship money are already dead.

 "Capitalism- This is your Reality." Web. 8 Nov 2010.
<http://www.hermes-press.com/capitalism2.jpg>. 

Wordle 1

Preliminary links

cia.gov
I used this to compare the economies of communist states and capitalistic countries. This website is sponsored by the United States government. For most countries information will be available, but some countries such as North Korea, information is not released out of those countries. You cannot look up information about countries that have already collapsed, such as the Soviet Union or West Germany. The information on this site is always up to date. This website is very pristine, because any change to this website must go though the federal government.  

http://www.buzzle.com/articles/pros-and-cons-of-capitalism.html
This can be used to find out the pros and cons of Capitalism from a non-biased source. After reading this site, you can better understand why or why not Capitalism is good. This allows you to weight the "pros and cons" of this ideology.

http://www.aneki.com/communist.html
This can tell you which countries are communistic. This website will tell you the current communistic countries. There are not many of them and some people forget about the smaller ones such as, Laos. It will also tell you the population of the countries.  

http://www.ucc.ie/famine/latest/latest.html
You can learn up to date news about famines, and what caused them. It has famines not only caused by communism but other things as well.

Whats better Communism or Capialism?

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

What I want to learn

Although, I may know a lot about Capitalism and Communism, there are still things I'd like to learn. A main point that I do not know is, why do some people believe that Soviet Russia is not a true communist state, while others believe it is?. The United States do have some laws that regulate corporations, but they are not enforced, does that make the US capitalist? The Soviet Union, never released there employment records so no one truly knows if they had more jobs during the Cold War then the US, so how can we tell who lost the Cold War? Another major thing I do not know is, do the people of communist states approve of there government? I would also like to learn who controlled the hearts and minds of their people more, capitalist countries or communist ones? Some of the communist countries may have been successful if not invaded by the US, do you think its fair for the US to simply say they would have failed anyway?

What I already know

Communism and Capitalism both have become extremely distorted  modern times; this change in meaning has taken place in only a few decades. Communism today is confused with, Stalinism, Trotskyism and Leninism. For the most part the CPUSA or the Communist party USA; believes in a utopian socialism or democratic socialism. In democratic socialism not all the population of the country would be nationalized, only the extreme riches land would be taken for the "Betterment of the State".

The socialists want the government to protect the poorer population from the corrupt corporations. They want the government to regulate the economy (set product prices). They are for socialist systems such as, welfare, Medicaid, social security, and free health care and our current local police and fire department systems. The exact opposite of utopian socialism would be the Tea party or Republican extremists. They want less government involvement in "big business". They would like to also slowly get remove the current socialist systems and replace them with privatized ones.

Capitalism is usually supported by the higher paid, while Socialism is generally supported by the lower class. The socialist politicians focus there platform on trying to make everyone economically "equal". The Capitalist do not want the country's population the be equal because if they were it would decreases revenue.

One of the main flaws of capitalism is that it makes the economy "money" oriented which makes the most corporations only care about profit. In a capitalist country you have a small chance of acquiring lavish amounts of money; although in a socialist country there is sometimes no chance of obtaining massive amounts of money that is totally unnecessary to have. Capitalism will make the poor poorer and the rich richer, while socialism takes the risk of making everyone poor. While capitalism has the capability to destroy a country it first will destroy other countries.

Hypothetically, if a capitalist country does not enforce any regulations on a corporation based in their own country, why would they regulate what the corporation can do in another other country? The corporation will then monopolize and industry such as grain, in a poor country like Nigeria. The people of Nigeria will be forced to work for that corporation, therefore that corporation can pay the Nigerian workers what ever they want. This is called outsourcing; it will decrease the jobs in the home country. Putting more lower class out of work, so since they are out of work that will increase the crime rate and foreclose on houses. It can Induce starvation upon the home country and Nigeria. That will increase inflation and eventually cause the country to collapse.

Socialism will brake down large corporations into local corporative this will ensure that the company cannot outsource. But there is always a down side, if you work for business that makes less money you will obviously be paid less. This does not mean if you work for a company that grosses more money you will make more; you may indeed make less since the company is usually only concerned about profit. If you work in a smaller business then you have less chance for career advancement.

Socialism or how its defined in modern use, usually oppresses people. This is because in the countries that socialism failed, the country started out poor and uneducated and the people did not understand what power the masses had. They were easily taken advantage of and it made it effortless for a corrupt dictator to take power and control the minds of its people. Tahe more uneducated you are the easier it is for the central government to brainwash you.

The ideologies' have their flaws and both have killed vast amounts of people. The way they kill people is extremely different, which makes it harder to find the real number of deaths. Socialism has killed nearly 110,000,000 a large portion of this number was killed but the Russians. This could greatly change the amount of people killed. George Orwell stated: "In my opinion, nothing has contributed so much to the corruption of the original idea of socialism as the belief that Russia is a socialist country and that every act of its rulers must be excused, if not imitated." If this is true then the amout of deaths caused by socialism would be much less. The other reason that the number is so large is that this is including the deaths from the communist revolutions, such as those in Spain, Cuba, and every South American country.

The idea that Hitler was a socialist, is a myth. The party itself was socialist, but Hitler was not. In his book Mein Kampf he states how not only the Jews are to blame for the worlds problems but the socialists were as well.

The way the people are killed under communism is that the government kills anyone who opposes the party's regime. Capitalism kills by large corporations bribing the politicians to start wars over resources. They also starve poorer 3^rd world countries; such as Nigeria, Somalia and helped cause "The Irish Potato Famine". Capitalism starts wars such as the Iraq war, and the Balkan Wars. The system will totally deplete a country's resources, and leave the population starving.

The gulf oil spill was partially caused by capitalism. The American government did not security laws on BP which allowed them to cut corners on safety. The country is then put into shambles after Capitalism has drained it. It makes it easy for a dictator to take power and cause genocides.

Both Communism and Capitalism have been used throughout the world in the form of variants so it is hard to define what is "True Communism and True Capitalism". Karl Marx is the known as the founder of communism; when he wrote the book The Communist Manifesto in 1888. The founding of capitalism is attributed to Adam Smith; whose book, "The Wealth of Nations" was the first to outline of the fundamentals of capitalism.

There have been many great thinkers from both ideologies, Such as communist Ernesto'Che' Guevara, Pablo Neruda, Jean-Paul Sartre and Karl Liebknecht. There are many great capitalist thinkers as well, Ronald Reagan, Calvin Coolidge, and Thomas Hobbes. 

There have been famous philosophers that also wrote books about how their own beliefs had flaws; they addressed them instead of ignoring them. George Orwell wrote the book Animal Farm that pointed out the flaws of socialism. George Orwell was a firm believer in socialism when he said: "Every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been written, directly or indirectly, against totalitarianism and for democratic socialism, as I know it." This means that a democratic socialism there should not be a totalitarian dictator.

The Story Behind my topic.

          Which Ideology is more successful Capitalism or Communism? What has caused more deaths, Communism or Capitalism? Is it the Tool or the Person that uses it's fault for faliure? There is constant war waged in both of the names “Patriotism” and “Equality“. Both of theses euphemisms have both been used under the banner of Capitalism and Communism. The words "Patriotism and Equality" have been soiled because of theses Ideologies. Leaders and Philosophers of all cultures and walks of life have encountered these questions when their current government collapses. I chose this topic because it is severely engrossing and is exorbitantly consequential. If theses questions are not answered the atrocities and  barbarity of the world will never be put to rest.