h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Okay so today i was just a looking through the guide entries and stumbled across socialism and other related entries...(after all i find it difficult to lift my feet high enough to step over social ideologies) ...well anyhow, reading people's entries arguing for/against capitalism/socialism was to me like the arguments that go round my head when it is all by itself. How do some people reach the end of the cycle of arguments with themselves and come out of it proclaiming that they are either socialist/capitalist? Am i alone in knowing that all i know is that you can always argue with valid and good points against either standpoint.
Honestly, is either approach really a good plan for the future, from a purely practical approach, surely if we actually manage to help the poor countries to become like the west and everyone can have a car and a house, the world would collapse under the strain?! am i missing something?
Is it really the most effective use of our finite earthly resources to have several different companies all competing to manufacture the same products, and not only that to keep inventing new markets for items which noone knew they wanted until they were made? I can't see how that is at all a sustainable way to develop.
Socialism that is not the new breed which works through capitalism, sounds lovely, but seriously can people who at the moment mostly require financial reward to drive them to do what is needed to be done, really progress without this capitalist drive? How would it work? Can a truly egalitarian society provide enough drive and reward for human beings?
Can a country be socialist alone, in a capitalist world? Isn't it time time we had true global government anyway? How else can the so-called world policeman be itself subject to the same rules as everyone else?
obiviously this page is littered with question marks...i would love for someone to help me to answer them, which ever side your bread be buttered.Which turn of phrase makes me wonder...does it matter which side we butter our breads if it will always land butter side down anyway?

This should be in <./>askh2g2</.>, where more people will see it.

The way i see it, Communism is a great idea, but so far no-one has got it to work. Cuba is the only successful communist country i can think of, and it's a military dictatorship (last time i checked, anyway). If someone could get communism to work it would be great.

Tango

Ah ha.
Do we mention the cats again or just leave it?

I liked the cats, don't leave them out!

Tango

yeah me too! If the cats had a society instead of living with us, how would they share out the bread so they could all have some tied to their tails?!

So... The buttered bread and the cats.

If buttered bread always falls butter side down and cats always land on their feet, can you tie a piece of buttered bread to a cat, butter side up and have the cat/bread hovering just above the floor?

i think definitely...the logic is impeccable

It could well be the next form of transport. I'm just of to work on the cat/bread. The name could do with some work I feel...

I think we may have lost our way...the cat/bread not only needs a new name as a form of transport but also a new conversation...this is not what was supposed to happen!?

I am sorry. I was to lazy to read all the way through and am a bit to join in such an in depth and responsible conversation. I shall leave you to it and only but in again with something intelligent.

I think I should proof read what I type before I post it too.


Thick and tired.

hee hee...well we could start another about the cat/bread, i think there could be something in it!

Sorry, we should stick to the topic, but that's not something we are very good at on h2g2...

Tango

Editorial Note: This conversation has been moved from 'Talking About the Guide - the h2g2 Community' to 'Socialism'.

So where's it moved to?

If you look at the top of the conversation you will see it has been moved to the Edited Entry on Socialism!

Just to clear it up, the conversation is still happening in this thread, it's just this thread has been moved. The conversation wasn't continued somewhere else, if that's what you were asking.

Tango