The Differences between Capitalism and Socialism
1. Introduction
This article aims to describe the events that led to the establishment of different economic systems of capitalism and socialism. What socialist thinkers as Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels thought? Capitalism began in the fifteenth century onwards, but from the eighteenth century with the advent of steam power and new techniques of production had to Industrial Revolution.
In 1750, Britain became the symbol of the Industrial Revolution, the cradle of capitalism. Later in the nineteenth century other countries like the United States, Germany, France, Japan and others begin to adopt the system of Capitalism. The consequences of capitalism were drastic, caused a massive displacement of people from the countryside to the cities, creating urban concentrations. This led to much of the labour force men to the development of rail roads, women and children were used in textile factories and mines with long working hours and reduced wages.
With the growing of social inequalities, the socialist thinkers who were Karl Marx (1818-1883), Friedrich Engels (1820-1895) began to study the facts to explain the social phenomena that was occurring. According to Campos (2007), in Marxist theory, the state is the means by which one class dominates and exploits another.
The Communist Manifesto, written in 1848, the authors say, when communism was implemented, society would live in collectives, without division of social classes and not the presence of a coercive state.
2. Capitalism
The capitalist system that began in the fifteenth century until nineteenth century, the accumulation of capital through profits from the trade and exploitation of human labour, whether employed or slave, calling the Commercial Capitalism. From the mid eighteenth century with the advent of steam power, the power loom and other techniques comes the Industrial Revolution. The Industrial Revolution began in England in 1750, when the man came to buy the work of another man in exchange for wages.
In the social environment, the main change was the emergence of the working class, which are living in precarious conditions in cities, living in slums, undergoing wages, with long working hours and no labour law. Later comes the banking, lending money at interest, where the currency has become the main product of the capitalist system.
According Guareschi (2003, p.51), Capitalism is a system that separates the working capital and whose relations are of domination and exploitation, for there to be domination and exploitation is necessary for the work of production and capital are separated. For Marx, the mode of production is the way society organizes the production of goods necessary for survival.
The capitalist system can be characterized in three aspects:
• Private property or private means of production;
• Employment with low wages;
• Free enterprise over the state planning.
In view of the foregoing, it is observed that the capitalist society was divided into two classes: the bourgeoisie, who own the means of production, the proletariat, which only offers the workforce.
The social organization, and therefore, the forms of behavior and interaction between the men are, in fact, regulated by the relations between men entered in the production of goods necessary for their existence.
In the early twentieth century, capitalism was characterized by liberalism, a situation in which government interference in economic affairs was minimal. After the 1929 crisis, the state will interfere in economic activities in many countries, calling the new liberalism, for example, in the United States President Franklin Roosevelt implemented in 1933, the New Deal , an economic and social program introducing the unemployment allowance, helps the needy, public works projects, etc..
