In a capitalist society, if you don't work you cannot advance.

...on paper, this is how it works. Just like how on paper Communism is about equally allocating resources. Communism's motivating factor: if you don't contribute in some way, you don't get in on the shared resources...anyone that thinks Communism was ever about lazily sucking on a government tit is an idiot.

Capitalism and Communism pretty much never work out in real life like they do on paper.

The human element will always fuck this up, no matter the system.

In Capitalism or Communism, who gets to say you have done your share of work and can enjoy the fruits of collective labor? It's other people, and they are going to bring their cronyism and politics and prejudices into their decision making process. Unfortunately it doesn't matter the economic system you apply when human fallibility will just muck it up anyways.

In a socialist society, labor is not encouraged because there is no reason to advance in your societal standing.

I already explained how this was wrong (if you don't work, you don't get the benefits of Communism either) but you are also missing the point that Communism (in the real world) has it's own hierarchy and if you impress the hire ups in "The Party" (as opposed to "The Executives") you will get rewarded with material wealth and increased responsibilities. Not saying that's how Communism is supposed to work, but that's how it has played out.

Plus, I think too many of us are buying into a product here more than anything. This idea of "advancing your societal standing" is a great motivator for consumers...because in a lot of ways its a sales pitch. You can increase your societal standing if you just take out these student loans and these car loans and this business loan and this mortgage and this loan on your health by stressing out over 80 hour work weeks or two jobs for years...see what I'm saying? None of these things are guaranteed to do anything, but how many people destroy their lives with these behaviors because they were convinced they were advancing their societal standing?

I'm not going to say outright to avoid advancing yourself or your career.

But it's real easy to wind up getting taken advantage of and not realize it until it's too late.

Lot's of carrots on a stick out their without any carrots on them...and I think that's my problem with Capitalism as it stands in the modern age. I don't ever feel like I'm contributing to society. I feel like I'm contributing to someone else's retirement while I scramble to avoid dying penniless in a gutter despite the fact that I have contributed more than I've gotten out of this whole system at this point. But there's always that promise of a promotion/raise/blah blah blah that never comes...