eCon 103 —
Economic Systems on the Control Axis
Four systems dominate political and economic thinking, with the two less extreme dominating desired economic practice today. From left to right, cCon to dCon, those systems are Communism, Socialism, Capitalism and Laissez-faire.
Here they are plotted on the Humanity Control Axis, and characterized in eCon terms of electrons and nucleons.
Icons for Economic Systems
The symbols for the two cCon systems are well known, but there don’t appear to be known symbols for the two dCon systems. Hence, creating this graphic took some creativity. Here’s how it came about.
Given that the icon for socialism is a hand, albeit a menacing fist, it seemed like a good idea to stay with hands for the systems to the right of socialism.
Capitalism is predicated on voluntary and orderly agreements between consenting parties exercising their private property rights, so a handshake seemed apropos.
Laissez-faire allows economic actors to be dismissive of others, so a hand that’s flipping the bird seemed apropos.
Finally, the icons implicitly signal that only capitalism is based on voluntary agreements by both sides of a transaction. The other three systems each disrespect voluntary agreements, with their icons signalling those power plays.