Is there a continuum from Capitalism to Socialism?

Capitalism is an economic and political system in which a society’s means of production are held by private individuals or organisations and where products, prices, and the distribution of goods and services are determined in a free market.

Socialism is an economic and political system in which the society’s means of production, distribution and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community.

Many people say to me well surely there can be a continuum between the two systems, and the reality is that the system we have at present is on that continuum.

For example, in a truly capitalist world, you can go and buy a car, join Uber and use the car to earn money for yourself. In a socialist society, the government would own the car and you would rent or lease it to you so you can earn money which you would pay to the government. In return, the government gives you a basic wage or some other payment.

But in the real world, this doesn’t happen. Governments in the Western World put regulations on how you can operate your Uber. Going back to the definition of socialism it says that governments regulate the means of production. Hence any regulation is a form of socialism and any private ownership is a form of capitalism.

• True capitalists want to be able to use their capital to earn an income uninhibited by regulation.
• True socialists want the government to own everything.
• True capitalism has never been tried, but we do know that true socialism leads to mass deaths, poverty and corruption.

We are destined to have a system somewhere on the continuum between the two. The problem is that the capitalist will see every regulation as a step further towards socialism and every socialist will require more regulation to stop individuals from gaining an advantage. 

When making decisions it is important to run decisions across your values. If you truly value capitalism you will argue against every new regulation and every governmental control over production. If you are a socialist, you must argue against any opportunity for individuals to benefit from the use of their assets.

This brings us to the postmodern political standoff. The capitalist wants to lower regulation, put power in the hands of individuals and let free markets dictate prices. The socialists argue that all those things will benefit some people more than others. Where postmodernism comes into it is that the socialist will not discuss whether a free market system will enhance society as a whole, they will only attack the capitalist as promoting inequality.

One, therefore, comes to the conclusion that there cannot be a continuum between capitalism and socialism in a postmodern world because invariably decisions will tend towards the socialist extreme which has been proven to be flawed far beyond any downsides of the capitalist system that has pulled 90% of the population out poverty over the last 120 years.