Help with Economic System Debate?

if it’s just a tried and true argument you’re after, adam smith and the wealth of nations / each acting in his or her own interest argument is very solid. specialization is also an offshoot of this. For something off the beaten path, explore how capitalism is, in one sense, the exploitation of inefficiency in business / general society. I had a professor who taught a session on this one day and it was very interesting and compelling.

Just think about incentives. There almost always must be an economic incentive for someone to do something.

Socialism is based on the idea that every person’s incentive is to work harder for the benefit of the nation; however, the individual asks himself, what incentive is there for me to work hard when the nation won’t notice my decreased productivity and I won’t get fired regardless of how productive I am?

This is also why so many people try to avoid taxes.

Go for individual freedoms. In a capitalist state the individual has more freedoms. While in a socialist/communist state freedoms are sacrificed for the whole. List the freedoms/bill of rights and than explain how each are sacrificed for the good of the whole.

Capitalism is good because it encourages people to innovate. The person with the best innovations has the best rewards, and more importantly, gets to keep a greater share of said rewards.