Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

To: Arleigh
I believe an arguement can be made that humans have an innate attraction to socialism.

I believe that you are wrong. In a small (hunter-gather society), where resources are scarce, people will share because they expect the others to reciprocate. If one person is holding back, hoarding food or lack of effort, everyone will know and reciprocate in kind. In a larger group cheaters can and will survive.

Capitalism is the natural result of Darwinian evolution. I think that it can be shown that labor unions and a limited central government are also the natural outcome of evolution

The concepts of individualism, self-reliance and capitalism are relatively recent. They clearly go against deep human nature.

Individualism and self-reliance are inherent in human nature. (Ask any teenager.) We trade off what we have to in order to survive (or increase our comfort level). Cooperation is what we do because we are better off if we cooperate than if we go it alone.
Capitalism is as red in tooth and claw as any struggle for survival in nature.

12 posted on 12/15/2001 6:37:27 PM PST by nimdoc
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies ]


To: nimdoc
In a small (hunter-gather society), where resources are scarce, people will share because they expect the others to reciprocate. If one person is holding back, hoarding food or lack of effort, everyone will know and reciprocate in kind. In a larger group cheaters can and will survive.
Capitalism is the natural result of Darwinian evolution. I think that it can be shown that labor unions and a limited central government are also the natural outcome of evolution,

You kind of make my point. One of the tenets of sociobiology is that you must consider the environment in which humans evolved - the small hunter/gatherer band.

People living in groups larger than 200 or so, capitalism and labor unions are only a few thousand years old at most. MUCH too recent for evolution to have enabled us to adapt to them. It takes thousands of generations before a beneficial trait becomes common in a species.

22 posted on 12/17/2001 5:43:08 PM PST by Arleigh
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson