What a victim might be inclined to choose is easy. What would the victim who lost a 3rd generation family farm choose? What would the 30 year career retail shopkeeper put out of business by the new Super Wal-Mart choose? What would the children of a woman with a closed head injury choose after the insurance company approves 2 weeks of therapy and then cuts her off? What would the 49 year old displaced worker who's job was shipped to Mexico choose? What would the wife and mother of three who lost her 45 year old husband in Iraq choose? What would the 71 year old retiree who was a little too heavily invested in AIG choose? An ideology? A party affiliation? A correct position? Or fairness, justice or compassion.
Neither socialism or capitalism are worth a lick if they do not serve to create prosperity and the common good. Neither is capable of inherent goodness or badness. An unchecked predatory capitalist isn't a whole lot different than an unchecked predatory socialist, or marxist, or hod carrier.
While one might perfer to believe that human nature is capable of restraining bad behavior on its own, but it's a naive position. It is just as naive to presume that a stated ideology is capable of doing the same. Fairness and justice preclude political systems. Fairness and justice render everything else moot. A fair and just society of any stated political position is still a fair and just society.
Greed is a poison, cultures throughout history have tried to rationalize it every way that can be imagined, from political theory to religious birthright. It's been the same in every culture since mankind first recognized the concept of possessions.
Capitalism inherently appeals to people who place possessions first in their lives. People who value other things simply do not value possessions in the same way and never will. The greediest peoples with the biggest armies always win. As soon as they do they then set to the work of destroying each other. This is the phase America is presently in, the greediest among us are emerging and seeking to win the only game they know how to play. Rationalizing it or justifying it is very easy for them.
Greed is the root of all evil. Ideologies are just excuses.
