To start, according to Merriam Webster Dictionary, the definition of socialism includes these three statements: “1. any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods. 2a. a system of society or group living in which there is no private property. 2b. a system or condition of society in which the means of production are owned and controlled by the state”.
Therefore, those who argue for socialism may say that socialism removes the barriers between societal classes to enable the entire population to live as equals with fulfilled lives. It also allows for equality in the workplace because there is no prioritization of human need and hierarchy. Therefore, everyone has the same intentions to benefit society and make it better without putting others out. Furthering down the equality track, gender equality has potential to hold true in a socialist
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The American Dream is what drives people to move to the United States to make something of themselves, gain wealth, have nice things, and earn their way to a better life. Also, if the government ran all companies, we wouldn’t have the amazing inventions from Apple, Microsoft and other large companies because they wouldn’t have the ability to innovate, grow and advance technology at free will. Furthermore, without competition, people become complacent and it eliminates the drive to become better and move society forward. Last, socialism prevents job growth because it removes the incentive to work hard for higher pay, or higher title and more responsibility in the company. I lean more towards arguing against socialism because I agree with these above statements. I believe one should have the free will to earn their way in life and that competition is healthy to grow themselves, businesses and the
Socialism along with many other ideologies has a vast number of different strands and with a couple of different roads to achieving what is fundamentally socialism. Socialism being the ideology that utilises collectivisation to bring people together and to unite people by their common humanity. The two most obvious roads of socialism would be that of revolutionary socialism and also that of evolutionary socialism. This are taken on by two different types of socialists, revisionist socialists and fundamentalist socialists. Revolutionary socialism is the belief that capitalism can only be overthrown by revolution against the current political system. To them
Essentially, Socialists wish to construct a society in which the profit motive is gone, and in which society as a whole democratically plans the economy. Money will be replaced with labor vouchers, bosses by workers’ councils, and shops with communal stores wherein proceeds of labor are exchanged for vouchers. The traditional profit-driven capitalist ‘firm’, along with class society, will be entirely vanquished. Socialists understand that revolution is necessary to put the working enterprises into the hands of the workers on a mass scale.
Capitalism, which has a free enterprise market, allows competition between businesses. A capitalist economic system results in a competitive market where there are many companies that provide similar products or services. In order for the companies to outdo their opponents, the companies will often change and improve the price, the quality, and/or the quantity of goods or services (Deane). A competitive economy drives people’s ambition to constantly be improving and making changes to their businesses (Burke). Just imagine if cell phone companies were not competing against each other, the iPhone might have never been invented. However, socialism does not encourage competition or innovation within the society.
Any system of oppression that affects more than a handful of individuals can be rather trivially projected onto the class-based oppression put forth by Marxist theory by simply mapping the oppressor onto the bourgeoisie and the oppressed onto the proletariat with only a few caveats. This fact raises an important question of whether we can take a Marxist approach to getting rid of said system of oppression, namely by implementing a socialist system or whatever its analogue may be in this case. While such an approach seems to work and to mitigate some of the immediate grievances of the oppressed class, it is not a comprehensive solution and adaptions to the specific kind of oppression are necessary. For example, in the case of women, gender-specific societal expectations have to go away among other things and in the case of colonialism, the colonized territory has to obtain its independence and attain a level of economic
This means that all industry isn't owned by the minority and is owned by the entire county, allowing everyone to benefit from the wealth that any business would bring. For individuals, socialism means an end to economic insecurity and exploitation. It gives the people a chance to develop all individual capacities and potentials within a free community of individuals and allows a classless society that guarantees full democratic rights for all workers. State socialism is clearly better than capitalism as it allows the masses to have a chance to have the freedom that it is promised without being held down by class systems and economic fundamental laws. If socialism proves as a better economic way of running a country, why don’t we use it instead of making everyone suffer to allow the few to stay rich? Socialist ideology could prove to become an easier way of rule compared to democracy as the state allows everyone to gain from industry. Socialism seems to allow everyone to benefit, which is what a democracy claims to allow, yet never really does give the people what they
Socialism is an off-shoot of liberalism. Socialism is defined, by Shively (p. G-9, 2014) as “an ideology positing that society consists of classes (groups of people similarly placed economically) constantly in conflict. To create a just society in which people are equal, the working class should take over the state and direct all industries.” When the liberal sentiment began to weaken in the labor groups and classes, the belief that the government should protect against sickness, unemployment, length of work day and week, and work-place safety began to take a solid footing within the more liberal groups. Socialism retained the liberal belief that all persons deserve equal treatment by the state and have the ability to develop themselves. However, socialism did neither believe people could develop as individuals nor were socialists suspicious of the concentration of power. Socialists believed people were in their respective classes and developed within their class (socialites, aristocracy, intellectuals, workers, etc.,), not to leave their class. Individuals do not develop their own views of
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.
Also progress results when individuals follow their own self interest. They also believe that businesses follow their own self interest by competing for consumers money. Each business tries to produce good and services that are better and less expensive than competitors. And the government should not interfere in the economy because competition creates efficiency in the business. Meanwhile myself and other factory workers support socialism, socialist believe the community or state should own property and the means of production. Socialist believe that capitalist employers take advantage of the workers. The community or state should act to protect the workers. Also they believe that capitalism creates an unequal distribution of wealth and material goods. A better system is to distribute goods according to each person's need, furthermore human resources/labor socialist believe all income is equal and the use of resources should be used for the good of the people. I think socialism has all good ideas because why should one person struggle and have no food or have to work really long hard hours and days while a someone else should have so much food they dont know what to do with and they care barely work and be wealthy it is not
Socialism is a government run by the public rather than by private individuals. Thus, in a socialistic country, the common public owns the factors of production and makes economic decisions. Therefore individuals do not work alone, but together. Everyone in the community contributes to one another. Socialism came into being due to the success of capitalism. Socialism is the complete opposite of capitalism. Socialism believes in everyone being equal. The start of socialism was in the early 1800s, when a man by the name of Henri de Saint-Simon, thought of the idea of a society as “one large factory.” ("The Origin of Socialism." The Origin of Socialism. Constitutional Business Consulting Inc, 1999. Web. 16 Feb. 2015.)
With government involvement in business, fairer treatment for all was feasible. Most countries today have socialist parties, many have socialist governments, and others who are in between have adopted socialist ideas. Communism and socialism are
Socialism is understood as a system whereby “resources are owned in common; a system where nobody is able to take personal control of resources beyond their personal possessions such as food and other personal effects” (“What is Socialism”, Web 29/03/2017). Socialism is said to have developed as “an objection to liberal individualism and capitalism in Seventeenth (17th) and Eighteenth (18th) Centuries” (Web 29/03/2017). Democratic control under socialism is taken to “mean a society in which everybody has the right to participate in the social dimension that affect them; while production under socialism is directly and solely for use in order to meet human needs. Under this system, buying and selling are said to be prohibited” (Web 29/03/2017). Socialism would therefore mean an economic system based on the State ownership of capital, production and an equitable distribution of wealth and material resources with free to goods and services.
Socialism: A theory or system of social organization that advocates the vesting of the ownership and control of the means of production and distribution, of capital, land, etc., in the community as a whole.
The first important aspect of Socialism is its nature of supporting economic and social equality. In order to understand this feature of socialism, one must grasp the importance and benefit of equality to a society. Albert Fried summarizes common socialist themes in the statement “ each person’s obligation to society as a whole was the absolute condition of his equality. Society is a brotherhood not a collection of strangers drawn together by interest” (Love 81). Some may argue that creating a community of brotherhood and equality prevents drive for success. Capitalism inherently creates motivation to surpass one 's current class level and move up the economic ladder. This supposedly creates more economic production. Albert Fried disputes this claim however along with Joseph Chytry. Fried claims that “The individual derives his highest fulfillment from his solidarity with others, not from the pursuit of
The term socialist has been thrown around quite a bit in the past few years. Not since the cold war has the term garnered so much attention in the press and from politicians. But when you look at countries who actually have a socialist economic structure, you can see some similarities to the United States – but there are some really stark differences.
In contrast, a socialist economy is distinguished by the major means of production being owned by the state. People do not work for their own good, but for the good of everyone else as well. Wealth that is earned is then distributed among everyone in the society.