Socialism And The Economic System

However, the myth that it’s fair and equal to take from one and give to another persists and that’s because socialist economics seeks to create reality using an abstract, a belief. Surviving modernity requires knowledge and understanding of political ideologies, specifically progressivism; (the greatest source of terror and death in the 20th century), containing a toxic mixture of elite political rule of bureaucratic technocrats, bankers and big business; otherwise termed liberal fascism.

Socialism is the underlying motivation behind communist movements in history. Socialists believe that it is unjust for a small amount of people to own the biggest portion of the wealth in society. This idea lead to the concept of a communist society, in which the existence of private property is eliminated in favor of government-owned property being shared among all it’s people. The government would provide jobs and care for all people equally. The idea was that through communism, there would be no social classes, thus eliminating alienation for any of the people in the society.

The term socialist comes from the Latin word "sociare" which means to share. Socialism was born out of the concerns developed as a result of the Industrial revolution. As Liberal individualism and capitalism had failed to address issues of social inequality and poverty; Socialism was projected as an alternative way forward (Germov & Poole, 2015). Socialist in general prefer cooperation before competition. They believe in social equality and suggest that if material needs and personal developmental needs are satisfied this will assist in guaranteeing social stability, cohesion and ultimate freedom. (Heywood, 2017). The five core values of Socialism are community, cooperation, equality, class politics and common ownership (Heywood, 2017). They believe in moral incentives and not merely economic incentives. In addition, Socialist believe that formal equality in and of itself is insufficient to combat the structural inequality that society and the capitalist system have produced (Heywood, 2017). Inequality for a socialist is an inevitable curse that fosters competition and weakens solidarity (Bresser-Pereira, 2014).

Throughout Europe, people of all different classes and moralities had different views of socialism and how it should be achieved/expressed throughout time in that area. An economic and political system based on collective or state ownership of the means of production and distribution is known as socialism. Socialism branched from Republicanism in the early 19th century, because people came to disapprove unequal distribution of wealth and goods. Socialists wanted equal rights for all, but they were opposed to upper class people who received more income for less work with little impact on society. A socialist economic system is the representation of attempting to eliminate economic inequalities and exploitation. Goals of this would be ending

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.

“From each according to ability, to each according to his contribution”, is socialism’s slogan. Socialism is a social and economic system characterized by common ownership, democratic control, and production for use only. Common ownership means that the resources of the world are owned by everyone thus, nobody can take control of resources beyond their personal belongings. The concept of democratic control means that everybody in a society has the right to participate in the social decisions that affect them. Production under socialism is directly and entirely for use. For example, everyone receives their share of production based on how much they have contributed. After a percent of their share is deducted to go to the common good, workers receive their share of production. Examples of common good is transportation and education, but common good is also used to help those who cannot directly play a part in production like elderly people or children. Socialism works under the assumption that everyone is willing to

Socialism and capitalism are two very different economic/industrious systems but, in some ways, they share a few similarities and that is what this essay will be discussing. The comparison between the two systems and their advantages and disadvantages for those who live in such societies. Socialism and capitalism are marginally contradicting scenarios offering advantages and disadvantages in the world of production and financial assistance.

However, believers in socialism would completely disagree with this ideal. Socialism is the economic system in which the workers, instead of a rich minority of entrepreneurs, own all industry. Workers receive the full fruits of their labors instead of being given miniscule compensation for backbreaking labor. Since the people are paid well for their work, work becomes a cooperative entity where people come to rely on one another and people actually are more inclined to do their fair share to help the advancement of society as a whole.

The idea of socialism challenged the way thinkers saw labor by wanting more equally distributed labor. The idea that workers were trained as a whole equally, there would be an increase in the quality of labor. The socialistic idea is that instead of individuals being most important, society as a whole should be top priority. The government training workers and providing employment is what socialists were striving for and they believed it “is easily practicable” (Document 1). If the government would spare the money, time and effort in training and providing workers with jobs, an

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

The ideal of capitalism believes in the ideal of Laissez-faire and opposes government intervention in economics because capitalists believe free-market produces the best economic outcome for society and the government should not pick winners and losers. Even though capitalism disregards the theory that government can change rules of conduct/business practices through regulation or ease of regulations; socialism is still the better form of government because its’ ideals are that people are to have equal opportunity to

(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

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

Socialism is criticized for its lack of private property. A central power owns and distributes all goods, so individuals do not have any items to claim as their own. Therefore, individuals may lose or be deprived of certain goods simply if the state sees fit, and this total dependence creates criticism of a socialist rule.

The two dominant economic systems we have in the world today are socialism and capitalism. In this text, I will in addition to comparing and contrasting socialism and capitalism also discuss the shortcomings of these two economic systems. Further, amongst other things, I will highlight the overlaps between the two.