Unlearning Economics — Pieria Article On Capitalism versus Socialism

My latest on Pieria calls for a reconsideration of the simplistic ‘Berlin Wall’ narrative....

I have already had someone on twitter charge that I am blaming both capitalism and communism’s problems on capitalism. This isn’t the case: social science is a matter of understanding structure versus agency, and the communist countries were born into a world where structure heavily inhibited their development. Meanwhile, it seems that capitalism retains its undesirable characteristics even when it is unchallenged (pre-1917 and post-1991). Its proponents attribute this more to agency than structure; I disagree. However, I am merely calling for a debate of this sort, so we can move away from disingenuous ‘Black Book of Communism’-style kill count porn.

Unlearning Economics
Pieria Article On Capitalism versus Socialism

Speaking of capitalism versus socialism in general terms as competing economic system is silly. Societies are complex systems constituted only of individuals but relationships. These relationships are both structural and functional and span culture and institutions. Each case is a combination of social, political, economic conditions that come together in a historical context and cannot be viewed independently of that context in a way that arrives as universal judgments or general principles.

G. K. Chesterton's quote is apt here: "Christianity has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and not tried." 

The same could be said of capitalism and socialism as economic systems in theory.