Why communism lost

[opebo]

I think Osama Bin Laden would claim he killed the Soviet Union, and he has some pretty good arguments.  He would also claim he's well on the way to knocking down the remaining 'superpower'.

[opebo]

I definitely have to agree with Dibble on the zero sum game arguement, Marxist.  However it is worth noting that in most cases the vast majority of the benefits from the 'higher pie' created by capitalism will flow to the owner, not the worker.

There may even be a few cases of people who are made utterly destitute by economic change - as in they loose everything in heigtening the pie.

[opebo]

I definitely have to agree with Dibble on the zero sum game arguement, Marxist.  However it is worth noting that in most cases the vast majority of the benefits from the 'higher pie' created by capitalism will flow to the owner, not the worker.

Oh, I won't disagree with this. Definitely some people benefit more from a trade than the other party, but still both parties generally benefit. The reason the rich become rich is because they do a lot more trading than most of us - we might trade with a few hundred or even a few thousand people every year, but people like Bill Gates use their resources to trade with millions.

Well, another way to put this is that the rich benefit more because of their advantageous position in the economic heirarchy.  Pretty easy to bargain with a worker when you can simply replace him.  People at the top of the pyramid are not so plentiful.