Leo's Neverland of Opportunity

It's 2017.

We are almost two decades into the 21st century and a full decade into the fallout from the 2008 global financial crisis.

Following the boom of finance-driven, unregulated growth and the bust of ... finance driven, unregulated debt, much of the developed world is under siege from social and political forces to swing away from the right wing capitalist policies and back to left wing socialist ones.

The good versus evil battle of Capitalism - Socialism is waged daily in the mainstream media as political players attempt to either hang on to or gain possession of the power football.

Nowhere is this play more farcical than in Ireland where right wing free-market champions Fine Gael preach a sermon of world-leading economic recovery while families find themselves in Dickensian slum poverty - possibly the only true commemoration of 1916 Ireland.  At the same time criticism of the "new" crises in health, housing and homelessness and general societal disintegration is apparently still the fault of right wing free-market Fianna Fail.

The Fine Gael government argue that the solution to the housing crisis lies in private development.  They appear to hold the same ideology with respect to health, social welfare, infrastructure and pretty much all areas of State responsibility.

Their erstwhile partners in government, Labour, are beating the socialist drum again in opposition when they were very happy capitalists when in power.

The left-Left have failed to inspire action from the public.  Having piggybacked on an entirely non-political grass roots public resistance to Water Charges and increased their parliamentary might in the last general election, their inability or unwillingness to seize the day and combine into a force capable of challenging the Fine Gael/Fianna Fail monopoly in Leinster House will surely translate into lossed gains in the next.

Which brings me to the point of this piece.

Left / Right
Socialist / Capitalist

Is this ideological debate actually valid in the real world today?

Leaving aside all discussion of the corruption / abuse of power which infects all political systems and regimes, what are the merits of advocating for a more Capitalist or Socialist system in 2017?

For me, the difference seems to distill into the following dichotomy.

Capitalism is a system which proposes that EVERYBODY AVAILS EQUALLY OF THE SAME OPPORTUNITIES TO ACHIEVE A BETTER LIFE.

The implication is that everybody STARTS from the same point and has the freedom and opportunity to 'succeed' (whatever that means) in the system.

Socialism is a system which proposes that the EVERYBODY SHARES EQUALLY IN THE BENEFITS OF THE SYSTEM.

The implication is that everybody FINISHES at the same point and eventually 'succeeds' (benefits) from the system.

If 'success' is a mountain, then Capitalism says everybody lines up at the bottom and starts climbing.  Socialism says everybody reaches the top.

The problem with both these propositions is that as positions of political ideology in 2017 they fail to address how they would operate in the REAL WORLD.

In the 19th and early 20th centuries these economic models were hot academic topics but today they ignore the simple truth that the STARTING POSITION for each looks like this:

In 2017 the argument, debate, discourse centres very much on "EQUALITY".

We can't have equality.

The Capitalist goal of equality of opportunity ignores the reality of the ABILITY TO AVAIL of that opportunity.  The billionaire's ability to avail of the opportunity to succeed in the Capitalist model is 'significantly' greater than the homeless person's.  The billionaire starts his climb within easy reach of the summit, while the homeless person starts his climb from the absolute bottom.

If both climb at the same speed their relative positions will not change.  In fact we know that the billionaire starts with a significant advantage in resources (equipment) and can progress at a far greater pace ... increasing his lead over the homeless man.

And this is where we are in the west in 2017.

The Socialist goal of equality of outcome ALSO ignores the reality of the relative starting positions.
In a world of limited resources, how can the homeless man climb the mountain without the equipment that only the billionaire has.  The billionaire must forego any further progress if the homeless man is to catch up so that they both reach the summit.