Contributors to human advancement.

[spacemonkey]

Welfare is used to keep the peasents just far enough from the edge of desperation so they won't revolt.

[The Dharma Bum]

[spacemonkey]

[The Dharma Bum]

[The Dharma Bum]

You see, capitalism is far from natural or inherent. Instead of being "reality" the way has to be paved for it by converting money into capital, and this can only be done by converting commonly held land into private property. And expelling people from their land is what created a exploitable labor force to begin with.

Without thousands of years of development capitalism simply wouldn't work. There's nothing inherent to our natures about it. Instead we have adapted our culture to a mode of production that is always looking for the quickest, easiest, and cheapest way to do something. In the short term those may seem like desirable properties for a mode of production to have but each problem solved causes ten more to emerge and the long term consequences of doing things that way are readily apparent.

Pollution , social unrest, war. All are the natural consequence of disregarding all other factors in our pursuit "faster,cheaper, easier".

[spacemonkey]

I doubt if there is a single rich man that didn't rely on help of the poor man to gain their wealth.

[John Galt]

[John Galt]

[The Dharma Bum]

There has been some technical advancement in spite of a corrupt and ineffective distribution system.

But think how much more the world would have advanced if the means to develop technical innovations were in the hands of everyone instead of a few. (and they had the time to do something with it, which is the point of the OP) We are stifling our human potential to hang on to a remnant of the past, but you seem to imagine we are maximizing it somehow. We are merely maximizing how much the Bill Gates and Warren Buffet's of the to world make at everyone else's expense, however.

Also, you have no idea what you are talking about when it comes to common ownership. Private property as a concept didn't even appear in western culture until around the 15th century. Before that time almost everything was commonly owned and it worked fine for all involved. Private property on the other hand is clearly not working out as it is concentrating the wealth of the planet into the hands of a few and we are systematically are destroying the planet and humanity to do it.

Finally, according to the criteria of sociology we aren't fully civilized until we adopt a civilized mode of production so technically speaking it is the remnants of barbarism that I want to destroy, and which you desire to preserve.

[The Dharma Bum]