@AlAlekhine I think you're better of reading "The Jungle" by Upton Sinclair. You won't be frightened by Stalin anymore when you find out what happened in the West during that time.
IMHO, men and women are equal, but they are typically encouraged to take different paths in life by society, and this applies to chess as well. If one of my sisters were to apply herself to chess, I have no doubt in my mind that she would be able to earn a "men's" title. But apparently, she thinks that neurology is a better use of her time.
The real reason I'm posting here, though, is because I am contractually obligated to appear and defend free-market economics whenever a forum includes three or more instances of "capitalism".
I never understood why capitalism is any "less equal" than any other form of economic organization, as implied by @StateYourPoint . Sure, you can enforce certain "progressive" economic policies in socialism, but then you are penalizing all of the groups who don't benefit from the policy. And then you have to take into account that these decisions are typically made by a small group of people who don't suffer their costs. I won't pretend that capitalism is nearly as effective at reducing inequality in the short run as a perfectly run socialist society, but the works of Becker demonstrate that capitalism does have a mechanism for discouraging the persistence of inequality.
BTW, rich and poor are relative. If everyone else has 1000 dollars and I only have 999 dollars, I'm poor. If I have 1001 dollars, I'm rich.
#426: But wasn't that a result of government imposed legal institutions which protected monopolized industries, rather than the natural progression of the free market?
@clousems Free-Market Economy is only the first stage of capitalism. It cannot be held for long and is succeeded by economic Imperialism, which is put into action by monopolization. And yes, Capitalism does have its pros and I do acknowledge it as being a legitimate economic system(it is even NEEDED as a preceding step to Communism). However, it is only a preceding system(This is all from the Marxist theory).
P.S Yes I agree that rich and poor are relative, but you have given a much too oversimplified example for it to be completely correct.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4h_iC-UOCCc&list=PL8-6oQwLtr8Y092WY2GlNrG9-q901zZVn
@StateYourPoint I never bought into Marxist theory (pun not intended, but I'll pretend that was me being clever). Some of the framework that Marx and Engels provided to support their arguments was just whack. I think The German Idealogy was the one where they said that Communism will lead to more great artistic masterpieces, because workers will be able to paint in their off-hours.
@clousems Can you provide an example please?(Not meaning to annoying or anything, this conversation I think is very educational for me).
Marx and Engels said that people could self-develop in their free time(and they would have quite a lot of it, or 8 hours of working and the rest free as it was in the USSR).
@AlAlekhine I really do recommend reading(or watching) this classic: "The Good Soldier Švejk"
@StateYourPoint
I have some recommendations for you as well but I will be banned if I state them here.
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