redgreen5 said:
1. There are MORE THAN 100 million deaths due to capitalism. Both World Wars alone totaled 58 million deaths. On top of the major wars, there are also the minor wars (Iraq, for example) as well as the deaths due to colonial expansion.
2. And let's not forget how many millions died in the 19th century wars of colonial expansion - including the millions of Native Americans killed in North and South America.
3. And how about the colonial expansion of Europe during the 1500s, 1600s, 1700s? You didn't think of any of that, did you?
Hmm. So, totalitarian action by government is "capitalism"? Could have fooled me.
Statism is statism no matter how you slice it.
redgreen5 said:
4. I would also point out that the number of people dying is in direct proportion to the effectiveness of technology. The chief reason why so many people died in the 20th century is because mankind got so much more effective at killing. It wasn't because of political ideologies, it was because of advances in military hardware. If the Europeans had possessed the same technology during the Napoleonic Wars, there would have been far more people killed during that war than what actually happened.
Which means that we need
limited government. Give a few elites power that their subjects do not have and they will use it to further their own ends.
redgreen5 said:
5. Finally, your claim about communism and God is nonsense. In fact, communism and socialism have often been practiced by religious groups. As I told you: scripture is silent on communism vs. capitalism.
Although the terms
communism and
capitalism are not present in Scripture for historical reasons, their concepts can be found there.
As for
communism, you will
never find Scripture advocating for government that tries to keep most people economically equal.
As for
socialism even, you will
never find Scripture advocating for social welfare in ways that are practiced today. The closest you could get are the tithing laws (especially the third-year tithe), and the field gleaning commands. However, only landowners (not wage earners) were "taxed"
agriculturally, only from annual increase not from "income." If you study them out, you will find that the purpose of the tithes (from landowners only) was so that they would "fear the Lord" by recognizing that
God was specially the source of their prosperity through something only He could do--control the weather. Nothing that was the product of man's skills such as through craft and trade was subject to the tithe. All other admonitions to meeting needs were left to
charity, not government police. Also, there is absolutely no support for one of the pillars of
communism and adopted by most incarnations of
socialism--the
progressive tax!
As far as
capitalism (namely the "free market"), read the book of Proverbs! The wisdom of Solomon expresses
charity (not coercive redistribution), hard work, savings, and investment. If there is
coercion involved, it should not be confused with the
free market.
