资本主义是一个复杂的社会-政治-经济体系。与其他任何系统一样，无论是机械系统还是社会系统，故障模式都遵循一定的模型。为了理解故障的性质或在故障发生后及时察觉它，理解故障发生和显现所依据的模型非常重要。描述系统故障最常用的一种通用模型如图2所示。在系统的核心设计中，可能存在一个或多个缺陷或错误。如果这些错误在系统开发的早期阶段被发现，便会被消除和/或修复。如果由于设计者的疏忽或知识不完备，某个错误仍留存在系统中，它就成为潜伏性错误。潜伏性错误在被触发或诱发之前不会对系统造成任何损害。触发因素是某种条件或环境，它会诱发或激发系统中的某个错误。在物理系统中，潜伏性错误通过广泛的测试被揭示和检测，测试会让系统暴露于各种类型的条件和环境之中。遗憾的是，社会-政治-经济体系无法在实验室中进行测试！因此，此类系统中的潜伏性错误，只有在该体系真正得到实施并长期运行，且在特定时间、特定环境中出现恰当条件时，才可能暴露出来。一旦错误被触发，系统就会出现差错，导致其偏离正常行为。如果差错没有在适当时机得到遏制和隔离，就可能导致整个系统失效。系统失效意味着它无法履行其主要功能或实现其既定目标。

capitalism is a complex socio-politico-economic system. As in any other system, mechanical or social, failure modes follow certain models. In order to understand the nature of failure or to detect a failure once it occurs, it is very important to understand the model in which failures occur and manifest themselves. One of the most general models used for describing system failures is depicted in figure 2. At the core design of the system, there could be one or more defects or faults. These faults, if detected in the early stages of the system development, are removed and/or fixed. If a fault remains in the system due to oversight by the designers or lack of complete knowledge, it becomes a dormant fault. A dormant fault will not do any harm to the system until it gets excited or provoked by a trigger. A trigger is a certain condition or environment which provokes or excites a certain fault in the system. In physical systems, dormant faults are uncovered and detected through extensive testing which exposes the system to all types of conditions and environments. Unfortunately, social-political-economic systems cannot be tested in a lab! Therefore, dormant faults in such systems can only be exposed when the system is actually implemented and practiced over a long period of time and the proper conditions occur at a given time within a given environment. Once a fault is triggered, the system will experience an error which causes the system to deviate from its normal behavior. An error can lead to complete system failure if not contained and isolated in due time. The failure of the system renders the system unable to provide its main functions or achieve its objectives.

举例来说,可以把房屋地下室的一处薄弱点看作缺陷或故障。这个薄弱点就是过量的雨水或洪水可能渗入房屋的地方。引发该故障的触发条件是短时间内降雨过多。水通过地下室流入房屋就是错误,因为在正常情况下水不应进入房屋。这一错误(房内进水)可以被住在屋内的人或某种监测装置发现。由此,错误得以识别和隔离。为了控制错误、避免其导致损坏,会使用水泵将地下室中多余的水抽出并排到室外。如果没有水泵,或者水泵因某种原因未能启动,错误就无法被控制,洪水会持续留在屋内。这可能导致严重的损害,包括房屋倒塌。

As an example, think of a weak spot in the design of a house basement as the defect or fault. The weak spot is where excessive water due to rain or floods can penetrate the house. The triggering condition for this fault is too much rain in a short period of time. The flow of water into the house through the basement is the error, because in normal circumstances water should not come into the house. This error (water in the house) can be detected by people living in the house or some monitoring device. This is how the error is identified and isolated. To contain the error such that it does not lead to damage, a water pump is used to remove the excess water from the basement and push it outside. If there is no water pump, or the pump fails to kick in for some reason, the error will not be contained and the floodwater persists in the house. This may lead to serious damages, including the collapse of the house.

这种故障模式在我们的生活中非常常见。心脏衰弱、动脉部分堵塞、肺部有缺陷或肾脏不健康，都会引发各种疾病和疼痛；如果不及时治疗和控制，便可能导致死亡。汽车的机械缺陷（漏油的部件、车轮失衡、电压不规律）则会使车辆出现各种问题，轻则导致整车报废，重则引发灾难性的事故。

This failure model is very common in our life. A weak heart or partially blocked arteries or defective lungs or unhealthy kidneys cause all types of sicknesses and pains, which if not treated and contained in due time may lead to death. Mechanical defects in our cars (leaky parts, unbalanced wheels, irregular electric voltage) can cause all types of problems in the car which can lead to total damage of the vehicle or even to catastrophic accidents.

政治、经济和社会制度之间并没有太大差别。所有制度都可能存在缺陷和潜伏的故障。与物理系统相比，诊断、界定和发现这些缺陷要困难得多。分析困难的一部分在于，政治、经济和社会制度通常有怀有坚定信念的人支持，有时还有掌握权力和权威的人支持。苏联鼎盛强大之时，几乎不可能指出社会主义制度中的任何缺陷，更不用说由这些缺陷引发的错误和问题了。这种教条式的看法使错误在没有得到适当遏制的情况下不断扩散，最终导致整个体系的崩溃。苏联和社会主义的案例颇为有趣，是理解社会政治经济系统中“缺陷—错误—故障”模型的一个绝佳范例。

The political, economic, and social systems are not much different. All systems may have defects and dormant faults. It is more difficult to diagnose and define these faults and detect than it is in physical systems. Part of the problem of the analysis is the fact that political, economic, and social systems are usually supported by people with strong convictions and sometimes by people with power and authority. While the Soviet Union was well and powerful, it was almost impossible to point to any defect within the socialist system, leave alone to errors and problems arising from these faults. This dogmatic view allowed the errors to propagate without proper containment, which eventually led to the failure of the system altogether. The case of the Soviet Union and socialism is an interesting case and an excellent example for understanding the fault-error-failure model in socio-politico-economic systems.