Socialism Versus Capitalism - Economic Stability as a Unifying Goal

Thomas E. Chamberlain
2007 Social Science Research Network  
A prominent quality of the natural sciences is the integration of formerly separate or distinct branches of investigative learning, and a similar unification is now underway in the human sciences. Socialism and capitalism may also be united, on the same foundation: While the canonical Gossen Equation directly accommodates and unites the human sciences (most prominently...psychology, economics, and socialpsychology), this relation also allows an analysis and explanation of poverty, and shows how
more » ... the essentially unstable capitalist market-economy may be stabilized by appropriate socialist policies and institutions. More to the point, the increasing or growing division of the population into rich versus poor may be arrested and reversed by: (1) damping the predictability/confidence-eroding surges of capital and goods across international boundaries; and (2) instituting programs to directly sustain and promote the capital-intensity of disadvantaged citizens by sponsoring/requiring health-care, education, training, business knowledge, etc. ...After briefly reviewing the emergence of the instant utility methodology over the past 150+ years, the discussion turns to a substantive or essential factor in socioeconomic dysfunction in the world today-the tendency of the poor to reasonably and rationally reduce investment (in education, skills, health, etc.), in accordance with their lower or secondary discretionary power, thereby falling behind in relative and (finally) absolute terms. It is then advanced that socialist measures (proactive governance for equality and well-being) will defeat market-economy instability, and open the way to a more just and beneficent global society. ...As an unusual but constructive adjunct or add-on to the paper, the paper-discussion offered by Professor Yongjiang He of Nankai University at the Beijing Pacific Rim Conference is provided in the appendix, with responses to his questions.
doi:10.2139/ssrn.944337 fatcat:p62ikkruhngbfdz6wifgh5kemq