How do we quantify how many people died because of communism or capitalism?

[John Dule]

"Capitalism" refers solely to what happens in the sphere of the market, so if a "capitalist" nation's government decides to bomb another nation, those deaths cannot be attributed to "capitalism."

[John Dule]

"Capitalism" refers solely to what happens in the sphere of the market, so if a "capitalist" nation's government decides to bomb another nation, those deaths cannot be attributed to "capitalism."

You don't think decisions about who to bomb falls within the sphere of the market?

No.

[John Dule]

"Capitalism" refers solely to what happens in the sphere of the market, so if a "capitalist" nation's government decides to bomb another nation, those deaths cannot be attributed to "capitalism."

You don't think decisions about who to bomb falls within the sphere of the market?

No.

Well, you're wrong.

I'm comfortable with that.

[John Dule]

"Capitalism" refers solely to what happens in the sphere of the market, so if a "capitalist" nation's government decides to bomb another nation, those deaths cannot be attributed to "capitalism."

1. How many wars have started over the fight over certain valuable resources which are important for a nation's economic prospects or for dominating both the geopolitical or economical sphere (which applies to communist great powers too).

Thousands of resource wars happened before capitalism emerged. Were those "capitalistic" wars?

2. But more importantly how many people have been denied healthcare indirectly because the state hasn't been able to introduce affordable healthcare, affordable housing, affordable education and stuff like that, which indirectly leads to more deaths and less happy lives instead of where the states provides it for a cheaper cost, sometimes within the capitalist system itself.

Again, you're talking about "the state." When the US government does something wrong, that is not the fault of "capitalism." The government is not the market.

3. The environmentalist vs economic question. Some environmental issues are simply not ignored or not pursued because it might hurt the economic interests of a nation (Poland's pollution in the East, North Dakota Access Pipeline) of a multinational (oil companies), which causes havoc on ecosystems and some communities.

How exactly does one quantify how many deaths were due to "environmental damage?"

[John Dule]

In some sense, the world has always been capitalist. But that might be more because of human nature. The psychology/sociology behind capitalism is the same as that of human nature (driven by survival, driven by social darwinism, driven by the ego -> which explains partially why communism failed, because we cannot erase human nature).

No. The world has not "always" been capitalist. Capitalism is a very specific system of market governance in which labor is voluntarily allocated and private property is protected by the state. Trade and mutually beneficial exchange are inherently human traits, but that is not the only component of capitalism.

Let's assume what you state here is correct. And if we reverse the equation. When the Sovjet government does something wrong (gulags and stuff like that), is it the fault of the state of is it the fault of communism?

"Communism" is a system that organizes both the state and the economy. "Capitalism" is a system that only organizes the economy. You can have a capitalist dictatorship or a capitalist democracy.

We can't, but it doesn't matter, we all know that climate change and environmental damage / loss causes lives. We can do estimates however, some probably already did. Air pollution is one of them, we're not talking about climate change, but about environmental damage. I consider that environmental damage. I also think environmental decline - even if it didn't affect humans but it does, but let's assume it doesn't affect humans - is still not desirable. Loss of ecosystems and biodiversity is not something i think that should be desirable. And we haven't talked about other negative effects environmental damage causes.

Well, on some level I agree-- air pollution and related illnesses can certainly be construed as deaths that result from "capitalism." However, I think the issue here is that deaths that result from free market activities are inherently more difficult to quantify; deaths that "result from" capitalism usually happen because of negligence that ripples through multiple causal factors, whereas deaths that "result from" communism are often due to direct government action.