1. Differences Between America and Russia Homburg American Studies

2. In a well organized paragraph explain at least three differences between America and the USSR. Which do you think is the better system?

3. Capitalism- Free Enterprise. You can make lots of money or can lose lots of money Supply and demand Differences in wealth: Walmart’s CEO’s salary constitutes an hourly wage equal to the annual salary of the average Walmart employee. Socialism- No private profits form the labor of others Controlled Economy Critique of capitalism: The worker is kept in a condition of mere survival, while the wealth produced by his or her work goes to the employer

4. Socialist “inspired” programs in America Social Security Medicare/Medicaid Unions ( workers’ rights, 8 hour work day, etc.) Welfare programs (food stamps, etc.)

5. Governments America Two party system USSR One party system

6. Difference between communism and socialism It is difficult to discern the true differences between socialism and communism, as various societies have tried different types of both systems in myriad forms, and many ideologues with different agendas have defined both systems in biased terms. Some general points distinguishing the two concepts, however, can still be identified.

7. Continued socialism generally refers to an economic system, while communism generally refers to both an economic and a political system. Socialists see capitalism as a possible part of the ideal state and believe that socialism can exist in a capitalist society. In fact, one of the ideas of socialism is that everyone within the society will benefit from capitalism as much as possible as long as the capitalism is controlled somehow by a centralized planning system.

8. Karl Marx Marx expected that by this new form of an unalienated society man would become independent, stand on his own feet, and would no longer be crippled by the alienated mode of production and consumption; that he would truly be the master and the creator of his life, and hence that he could begin to make living his main business, rather than producing the means for living. Socialism, for Marx, was never as such the fulfillment of life, but the condition for such fulfillment. When man has built a rational, nonalienated form of society, he will have the chance to begin with what is the aim of life: the "development of human power, which is its own end, the true realm of freedom." Man, in Marx's view, has created in the course of history a culture which he will be free to make his own when he is freed from the chains, not only of economic poverty, but of the spiritual poverty created by alienation. Marx's vision is based on his faith in man, in the inherent and real potentialities of the essence of man which have developed in history. He looked at socialism as the condition of human freedom and creativity, not as in itself constituting the goal of man's life. Source: "Marx's Concept of Man. Erich Fromm 1961." Marxists Internet Archive. Web. 03 Mar. 2011..

10. Ayn Rand "Capitalism demands the best of every man – his rationality – and rewards him accordingly. It leaves every man free to choose the work he likes, to specialize in it, to trade his product for the products of others, and to go as far on the road of achievement as his ability and ambition will carry him." Source: ('For the New Intellectual' 1961) {WMail Issue #17}