Opinion: Communism kills. So does profit-craving capitalism.

To the editor: You write that communism has “led to the deaths of tens of millions of people through brutal purges, starvation policies and war.” (“It’s 2017. Being a communist shouldn’t be a barrier to public employment,” editorial, May 19)

In all fairness, cannot it also be said that capitalism has led to the death of millions of people through brutal wars in Vietnam and Cambodia and tens of thousands in totalitarian regimes in Chile and Brazil, as well as the two great world wars? Go back two centuries as capitalist expansion led to the deaths of millions of native American Indians and African slaves.

The list goes on, past and present: child laborers in “third world” factories, workers without protection and populations without healthcare. These are the fruits not only of communism and capitalism but also of tribal and nationalist competition.

Can the human species survive its instinctive contradictions? Not until we all abandon our hubris, our irrational and tribal ideologies, our greed and our addiction to violence.

Jay W. Friedman, Los Angeles

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