It is interesting to note that both the divergent Economic philosophies, Capitalism and Communism failed. And failed for precisely the same reason.
Does it mean that both were wrong. No. In fact there is nothing wrong in a free market economy as represented by Capitalism and the State Controlled economy that is Communism. The goals of both were the same - the good of the common man. Capitalism was to ensure competition resulting in better goods at cheaper prices, apart from creating more jobs. Communism aimed to do the same, but through Government investments, monopolies and economies of scale.
But why did they then fail? They failed because of Human Greed and concentration of power in a chosen few. In the case of Communism, the power was with the party politbureau while in the case of Capitalism, it was with the people who ran some of the top finanicial institutions. In both the cases, they abused the power vested in them to the detriment of the common man and betrayed their trust. The only people who benefitted in both the cases were the top party functionaries and top banking professionals who took care of their salaries and bonuses.
Any system is good as long as the people running it are good
