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What Governments Are "Not"

2/7/02
What Governments Are "Not"

In this essay I will be comparing the three economic systems: Communism, Capitalism and Socialism and will explain differences and similarities along with illustrations of each system.

Communism is an economic system where the government owns and operates the means of production and distribution. It is also known as a command system because individuals cannot succeed others, the government controls all. Capitalism is an economic system where private individuals own and operate the means of production and distribution. People have the freedom to own, choose, compete and earn a living but with little or no government help. They have the freedom to own, choose, compete and earn a living. Socialism is a mixed market economic system. The basic means of production is managed and owned by the government, with the public owning and operating many businesses. Cooperation is stressed over competition, goals are high standard of living and economic security and high taxes provide free health care and education.

In communism the government controls the market while in capitalism private individuals own and control the market. Socialism is a mix of the two because the government owns and controls production but with public owning and operating many businesses. In all three systems the lack of competition hurts the quality of goods and profits go down. Socialism is different because the high taxes they pay provide free health care and education. Capitalism and socialism both have goals of a high standard of living and economic security while communism's goals include full employment and income equality.

Some examples of communism are: The old soviet union, Cuba and China because the government controls all. Some people think that America is a socialistic economy because of the way our government controls production but allows the public to own and operate businesses. An example of socialism is...