Capitalism Vs. Socialism: Comparing Economic Systems

A look at the USSR in the final few years before its collapse; the restructuring known as perestroika; examining some of the major questions that shape economic systems; closing with a brief overview of the goals and scope of the course.

Meeting four of the most influential economic thinkers in history; examining their individual philosophies and influences across three centuries; finding out how many of their ideas overlap even as their philosophies differ.

There is no one absolute measurement that determines the health of an economy; the different metrics for economic success; an understanding of how they are calculated and interpreted; why these data points can start more arguments than they resolve.

Traveling to the birthplace of industrial capitalism; a fortuitous meeting of politics, technology and economics shapes the future; it also inspires writers like Charles Dickens to reveal the social repercussions of unregulated industrialization.

America is defined by modern capitalism from the beginning; the paradoxes in free-market systems; how Protestant religious philosophy plays a part in the direction of the economy; how founding figures set the course for American economic dominance.

Religious and political thinkers alike turn to new solutions to alleviate the often horrible conditions many workers experience; socialist projects that fall into two camps; the difficulties of running socialist systems in a largely market economy.