Capitalism, Socialism, Psychology

Also under-recognized in the more than a century of Capitalism-Socialism struggle is a sharp difference of Psychological theories.  According to Smith, an individual seeks to optimize profit, which entails maximizing gain with minimum expense.  Thus, for example, Government assistance, e. g. Unemployment Benefits, is often, especially in the U. S., interpreted as encouraging laziness and the avoidance of edifying work.  In contrast, Marx, influenced by Hegel, and anticipating Nietzsche, believes that a fundamental human drive is to transform its environment, the process of which is the essence of 'Labor'.  Accordingly, his concept of 'alienation from the fruits of one's labor' is primarily Psychological, not Economic, and to which a wage is never commensurate.  Thus, for example, the Capitalist complaint about Government Assistance is based on two erroneous Psychological propositions--that humans tend towards laziness, and that a job is necessarily edifying.  But, his Criticism of the Capitalist model is not simply that it is false.  Rather, he agrees that it is appropriate to a Capitalist system, as applied to the concept of 'Individual' that is implicit in that system, but it is inadequate to the more highly-developed Socialist 'Individual', i. e. to someone living in a more a highly-developed society.  A Capitalist response to that criticism remains forthcoming, primarily because, in the past century or so, the battle has rarely been engaged at an intellectual level.