Communism or Capitalism

There is a also a well proven link between social injustice and crime. That's why US jails are overflowing.

Define social injustice.  Inequality is a beautiful thing because it gives people the drive to better their lives by either producing a product or service that people want or by working hard to put food on the table.  If you make everyone �equal� economically, then nobody will have the incentive to work because they won�t get anything out of it.

The whole notion of �do it for the community� has never worked before, so don�t try it on me (I assume you know a thing or two about historical debacles related to that notion).

Yeah, as long as they are rich. But it is somehow OK to label poor people 'losers not worthy of surviving'.

Not at all.  What you appear not to understand is that free market capitalism is the most effective means to lift the poor out of poverty.  After all, in order to make money those �greedy� business owners must produce a product or service desirable by a wide array of individuals.  This leads to better products being produced more and more efficiently, cutting costs and making products that were once luxuries available to the masses.  That�s why your average family below the poverty line in the US has a car, washing machine, television and home.  Indeed, your average middle class family today lives far better than kings 150 years ago.

All government intervention does is hurt the poor.  For example, Medicare and Medicaid have driven up healthcare costs for lower-income families.  In 1960 lower-income families on average visited the doctor 5 times a year.  Today, they are lucky to visit once.  In 1960 the average hospital visit cost merely a day�s pay.  Today it can cost thousands of dollars.

Given life expectancy statistics, social security redistributes wealth from black men to white women.  Those who do collect social security lose money since the amount they receive is less (adjusted for inflation) than what they put in.  The most alarming trend resulting from such programs is the ridiculously low rate of savings by American families. 

I could go on and on.

Japan was very successful indeed, until economist-reading-IMF-market-fundamentalists-in-wall-street- payroll f**ked up East Asian economy.

The IMF is run by a bunch of Keynesians who enjoy impoverishing countries by telling their governments to inflate the currency and spend like mad.  They are certainly not market fundamentalists.

In any case, Japan is in no way a free-market success story. There are no poor people in Japan. Their economy has strong government control, and workers are well protected. They have a very low GINI index (this is a measure of economical injustice, the higher it is, the greater the difference between the rich and the poor).

Which is why Japan has been in recession for over 15 years.  That recession was caused by the Japanese central bank inflating the currency, feeding malinvestments and one heck of a bubble.  Government taxing and spending has only lengthened that painful recession.

You are the one who claims free market will always be better than any other system, I do not claim Communist countries will always perform better than Capitalist ones. So you have to explain why countries with free markets have failed so miserably all around the world.

Well, you�ll find that countries with freer markets are far more prosperous than those without.  Compare Hong Kong, which was dirt-poor in the 1950�s to Nigeria or any other socialist country.  The US has found prosperity because of its relative openness economically (Though that is fast-deteriorating today).  China began to boom after it opened parts of its economy to capitalism.  Europe is stagnating today because of their welfare systems.

I personally think that for different countries different systems will give optimal results. A free market may be good for Singaporean or Hong Kong economy, because they are tiny trade hubs. It is a disaster for most other countries, especially not industrialised ones.

Give me an example of where a regulated market has brought prosperity and I�ll throw you a cookie.

Soviet-style central command economy is ideal for quickly industrialising a country and developing the infrastructure if that country has enough resources.

Oh that�s rich.  Are you saying starving whole segments of your population is the way to find prosperity?

In any case, it was proven by economists (Joseph Stiglitz got his nobel for this proof) that external agents (e.g. state) can improve the performance of a market economy. Markets without external influence are optimal only when access to information is not limited. Which is NEVER in real life markets, since it is simply impossible to know everything about the economy.

In developed countries information access is relatively better, so they can afford to remove some government influence, but in third world countries free market just doesn't work in most cases, because information access is very poor. So if you try to industrialise a traditional country through free market, it will take centuries like it did in the UK. Except that today there are many already industrialised countries who will outsell your indigenous industries, so it will never happen.

It only took the UK 50 years and the US an even shorter amount of time.  Taiwan did it within 20 years thanks to its relatively open economy.

This also explains why practically ALL countries have mixed economies and why countries with good government control of economy like Japan and Korea perform well. Pure capitalism doesn't work. Historical examples abound. Note that I don't even mention the capital's tendency to monopolise. Pure capitalist economy is a pipe dream, no more realistic than Marx's end of history Communist utopia. 

Give me an example of when a pure market economy has failed?

In reality, only people who advocate free market are the rich people from Wall Street. The same 500 people who own more than 3 billions. And their ass kissers. They rule the Western 'democracies', and push their agenda.

They advocate corporatism, not the free market. 

BTW, I earn $5.25 an hour working at Arby�s.