Arguments Against Socialism

In Eric Foner historiographical essay “ Why is there no socialism in the United States “ he establishes different schools of thought to elaborate why it seems that the U.S. is exceptional in contrast to Europe in terms of Socialism. These four schools of thought focus on social, ideological, political, economic and cultural distinctions , that scholars believe makes the U.S. unique in contrast to Europe in terms of Socialism.

Sumner starts his essay out by explaining how socialism has been around forever. It can be visibly seen throughout cultures, and societies throughout history from different time periods and different regions. Socialism’s roots essentially come from when man kind can portray “harsh facts” about human society. Sumner’s first example are homeless people. Obviously, the fact

Pennington does not accept the “wealth inequality” concept. According to Pennington,”We need to agree right now to do ourselves a favor and stop calling it “wealth inequality.” Wealth is not the culprit.” Besides that, Pennington believes that socialism should be avoided more than being dreaded because socialism is centralized everything. It can not work in another way. “Socialism silences people.”

Allan H. Meltzer’s article about socialism published in 2016, titled: Fail and Fail Again: Like a Bad Penny, Socialism Keeps Coming Back is a piece that is effective in displaying many faults within a socialist government. Meltzer shows that socialist governments are proven to fail, while capitalist countries in contrast have a long history of prosperity. Meltzer’s method of displaying this fact and persuading the audience is strong and his thesis is sound. In the use of historical examples, logical explanation, and repetition, he effectively sways the audience’s opinion to his viewpoint.

Quotes like Winston Churchill’s have become part of the political rhetoric when leaders discuss the idea of socialism. In current events you can see the exact same argumentation being used against legislation such as the Affordable Health Care Act. Conservative talking heads such as Bill O’Reilly equate it to socialism because, as Mr. O’Reilly says himself, “[i]n order to provide for the have nots, the far left wants the federal government to seize the assets of solvent Americans. That’s what ObamaCare [the Affordable Health Care Act] is all about — taking from those who can afford health care to provide for those who cannot” (O’Reilly). This simplification of socialism does not do justice to the actual paradigm itself. Instead, in this paper I will try to refute our current idea of socialism because of a lack of understanding. The explanations and descriptions by Michael W. Doyle in his chapters on Marxist and Leninist socialism paints a picture that allows one to see how socialism could be beneficial to the common man while also critiquing the negative myths held by modern society.

According to The Week a magazine company socialism is “Broadly, it's a political and economic system under which the means of production are owned by the community as a whole, with government ensuring the equitable distribution of wealth.” The philosophical assumptions of socialism begin with the Latin root which is sociare and means to combine or to share. Throughout the beginning years of socialism, egoism was harming the communities while people were promoting the competitiveness of jobs and money leaving the poor to become poorer and the rich to become richer. Thus, the gap between the wealthy and middle class to this day is larger than ever. With the idealism of socialism in place, it will reduce the gap between the middle class and the wealthy as the “profits” are shared more

(2) There also exist opportunities for private wealth and ownership. Essentially, socialism is a less extreme version of communism. In the 2016 presidential race, the nation responded with shock and heated discourse over the candidate Bernie Sanders, an admitted democratic socialist. But this concept is not new to America, in fact it has been present since the early 20th century. We even have socialist programs existing today such as Medicare and Social Security. Those who support this ideology argue that a government of the people must provide basic necessities as well as equitable opportunities such as higher education, healthcare, and child care to its citizens. These all seem like fair and beneficial requests of citizens for their government. However, it still receives high criticisms and objections amongst Americans. That is because capitalism is considered a staple of the U.S. We value our individuality, our free market, and our opportunities for social mobility. That, after all, is the very idea of the American dream. Unfortunately, that dream is often crushed by the harsh realities of inequality, discrimination, and social class. The gap between the rich and the poor is widening rapidly, with 51.4% of income earned annually going to the richest 20% (3). The middle class is disappearing, the poor are getting poorer, and the rich are profiting. This leads many to the conclusion that a new political and economic system is the answer

As mentions before socialism is the doctrine that espouses public ownership or control of a major means of production. It aims to achieve an equitable and efficient distribution of social goods and greater economic planning then exist under capitalism. Although the central concerns of socialism appears to be economic its ramifications extend to the moral, social and political realms, in fact together with nationalism, it is the leading ideological and political movement of the 20th century.

Socialism is defined as a centrally planned economy in which the government controls all means of production. Basically, the government is in control of all business in the country that adopts it as an economic strategy, in our case, The United States of America. Now when we dissect this idea of socialism we find that there are to thought processes behind it. Some truly believe that socialism could truly be the answer to the problems of our nation, both economically and morally. These people try to push socialist policies in hopes of helping the nation and they are doing so with the purest of intentions. However, there are also the people who completely understand what socialism leads to, and want nothing more than to gain while others

Socialism aims to amend the problem by allowing everyone to contribute, so that everyone can reap the benefits. Imagine a world in a capitalist society that the wealth inequality was so wide, the very elite class is now leading society with the monopolies they own in various industries and the government only interacts with those who can afford it. An individual can only do so much such as if they had recently immigrated into the country or can’t afford the advance schooling, and the moment they come to the country, they are at a

Socialism allows the government to regulate all aspects of production, sales, and wages. Socialism is used to benefit the people as a whole, not as individuals. Economic equalization eliminates income inequality by lessening income extremes by creating a collective mentality among the people. Implementing socialism protects the middle and lower classes from poverty and prevents the wealthy from accruing too much power by creating shared responsibilities, social programs, and incomes; its unseen flaw is limiting the aspirations of society (Socialism UXL). In a traditional capitalist economy, wealthy elites hold political power; the elimination of economic elitists voids political elitists. Opposers argue that socialism isn’t fair. Wealth is equally distributed among the people due to government interference, despite the amount of work or career aptitude. Unlike capitalism, motivation is not a factor when there is not a direct relationship between work and outcome. Consequently, socialism clashes with natural human behavior. The lack of incentives leads to _______. Socialism is an ideology that fails through

Socialism in America has progressed substantially and is not bettering The United States. Socialism is a political theory of social organization that advocates that the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole. In much lighter terms socialism is where a government owns and runs everything in the country to, in theory, better the nation for the people. To increase the growth and help the economy in America the people need to learn what socialism is, learn why socialism does not benefit America, limit the federal government’s power, and look at statistics of the poor people in America.

Accordingly, one idea or fact that is often raised to differentiate socialism from communism is that socialism in general is the political movement that refers to an economic system in that they believe that the state should be in charge of all important producing industries thus taking hold of the control of free market in order to promote economic parity and egalitarianism. Theoretically, socialism seeks to distribute wealth equally among its citizens in a way that the rich don’t take

Socialism Violates personal freedom. It eliminates “injustice” by transferring rights and responsibilities from individuals and families of the state. It completely stops true

Socialism unfairly concentrates power and wealth among a small segment of society that controls capital and derives its wealth through exploitation.