Economic Systems

Economics is both simple and complex.

At many levels it is simply adding and subtracting when we measure things like Gross Domestic Product or trade balances.

However the actual impact of the economy on individuals can be harder to determine.

This is similar to measuring the individual cells in a person to see how he is doing.

If all of them are doing fine except say the brain ones, we probably wouldn't give hive a high rating.

That's a bad analogy but individuals are in fact the economy and the goal of most economic theory.

Capitalism is generally concerned with improving the larger economy.  Whether that leads to trickle down or not is debatable but arguing about what to do with more is better than arguing about what to eliminate.

Socialism, which is not necessarily Communism, is less concerned with the means of production but treats it as a collaborative effort where the fruits are shared equally.

So in Capitalism someone owns the apple tree and tends it, makes it grow, keeps it healthy and at the end owns all of the fruit which they trade to others for something of value.

In socialism the tree belongs to everyone, or no one and you simply take the fruit you need and leave the rest.

In Communism the tree belongs to the State who controls access to it and who gets what.

Socialism is problematic because in many cases the tree simply doesn't do well.

In Communism, the State is generally an inefficient owner since its goals are often disputed.

In Capitalism profit is the clear goal and motivator.

.Who gets the rewards though is also different and you have a system where the few get the biggest rewards but there are plenty of apples, or a system where the rewards are shared equally, but you generally have less apples.

If you don't get any apples it doesn't really matter though.