The Case for Socialism

There are a zillion examples of that, but basically running socialism for a profit means some people get rich and other people suffer.

 

those railroads were built on rights of way granted to the railroad by the us government, 5 miles pn both side of the track from sea to shining sea, regiments of us cavalry were also instrumental in building the railroad to clear out those inconvenient sioux who were wandering around the right of way as if they owned the place.

railroads were financed with every form of stock manipulation, insider trading, securities fraud and outright larceny that wall st capitalists could devise. those were the good old days.

 

There’s been a rumour going around for decades about trickle-down economics and competition bringing down prices. I think we can safely lay those rumours to rest now.

Business is about making a profit. You don’t matter, your health doesn’t matter and if you can’t afford to live on your salary, that doesn’t matter either. You’re a thing to be made a profit from. Societies change when enough things get together and change it through politics or violent means.

After fighting two bloody world wars, the British finally started to ask what they’d got out of it. Out with the previous Poor Law charity Act and Workhouses for the poor and the State took businesses out of the previous privatized sector. Much the same is happening now in the US as the armed forces are having to offer recruitment bounties to recruits because they too have figured out they’re not fighting for the US, but Wall Street.

How many of those now living in poverty are cheering for MAGA? Those who think they are obviously don’t have to live in poverty themselves. After the end of the apple pie era, its now you can see the divided society individualism produced, but the industrial era hid.

Darwinism and the survival of the fittest are left over beliefs from a by-gone era. Individualism divides societies not strengthens them and businessmen should be running companies, not societies.

The US has a poverty rate of 14.4% (poverty center, Columbia.edu). A 21% illiteracy rate with 54% below 6th grade level (thinkimpact.com). Nearly 553,000 are homeless (policyadvice.net). This is why people voted in Biden hoping he’d do something, which of course he won’t just like the other elites who care only about what they can personally make from it. But that’s what you get in a society without socialism.

 

Cuba currently enjoys a near-zero rate of homelessness. This is primarily due to high levels of housing subsidies from the government as well as a cultural tradition of multifamily homes where many members of the extended and nuclear family all share one residency. This social custom causes the vast majority of the Cuban population to be able to list an official address and thus minimize technical homelessness rates.

Hidden Homelessness in Cuba - The Borgen Project

 

As the state runs socialism, any profit made stays in the economy and not in an individuals pocket. Conversely, under unrestrained capitalism the few make the profit at everyone's expense.

 

Cuba is communist though, although I hear they're slowly introducing capitalism.

 

Well society and mankind exist on the principals of Darwinism, so enjoy sinking into the well of keeping the dumbest and worst to improve humanity for the future.

 

Heh. Every country in the Soviet Bloc, including the USSR, voted to go back to the privatized model after they had socialism.

I have friends who grew up in the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia and the People's Republic of Bulgaria and it's unfortunate that they can't be here to tell you what having socialism was like.

 

Multi-family homes were not a cultural tradition when I lived there. Trust me, you wouldn't want to move from the U.S. to Cuba. Cubans by the thousands are immigrating illegally to the U.S.

 

No it means government controls the means of production. In the U.S. we call those means businesses. I believe it has the same meaning in the UK. Every communist political system has a socialist economy. North Korea is not communist. It is an autocratic dictatorship with a socialist economy. Same with Venezuela and Nicaragua. Cuba is indeed communist with a socialist economy.

 

Neither your pension, nor your healthcare are quarantined. The government can take both of them away at will and there isn't a damn thing you can do about it.

 

I recommend you avoid applying for a teaching position in economics.

 

Where have you lived in a socialist nation where the people control the means of production and distribution?

 

Socialism has always been advocated as "the liberation of the working class from exploitation". It has only been actually proposed as the only way such liberation can happen, and that is by transitioning to a new economic system in which the working class owns and runs the "means of production". Crumbs for the workers is not socialism. Socialism necessarily means the end of capitalism. It means an end to private ownership of business for private profit.

I have bad news for your so-called "independent thinking".... Socialism has "never worked anywhere" because it has NEVER EXISTED ANYWHERE.


.....YET.

 

Oh come on Kris. There is no nation with an economic system dominated by worker ownership of the MoP where private ownership for private profit has been banned. You're pointing to socially-beneficial programs created (for the time being) on top of private ownership of business for private profit, designed and intended to save capitalism a bit longer, and calling it "socialism".

 

There you have it! Your kind of "socialism" preserves capitalism a bit longer by making exploitation and all the negatives a bit more "palatable" for the people.

 

I have some news for you. Marx correctly said that for socialism to be successfully established and flourish, the USA would have to become socialist first because of it's power and influence on the rest of the world. Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela are all very heavily harmed by US anti-socialist policies. (North Korea is just a tip pot dictatorship with no resemblance to socialism.)

 

I love that girl's "Shut the Fridge" expression. I don't get it but I can't wait for the opportunity to use it in RL.

 

wow.

I see we are all very heavily indoctrinated by the propaganda of our own country.

 

I'll tell you what, Noonie, the posts in this thread are each a huge challenge to untangle. One person refers to an economic system of capitalism and calls it socialism. Another person refers to the governing party and its POLITICS and tries to compare it to the ECONOMICS of another country. Another person refers to communist POLITICS and a communist SYSTEM in the same post and tries to relate and compare one to the other and never realized WTF he is doing........ HOLY CRAP!! LET'S GET A FRIGGING CLUE!!!!

Totalitarianism is politics.
A socialist economy is economics.

 

Nor is your spelling.

 

No pal. That is what Lenin called "state capitalism".

 

Wrong wrong wrong.
Cuba is run by communists who are trying to take the first step like all Marxists do ...... they are working to establish socialism.

All the anti-socialist, anti-Marxist, anti-communist CAPITALISTS look at Cuba and their new policy of transition of state-owned-and-operated businesses to workers' cooperatives, and they celebrate thinking in their foggy capitalist delusions that those workers' cooperatives are "capitalism" emerging. (Shhhhh. Don't tell them how STUPID they are!)

Workers' cooperatives are being developed in Cuba as a significant step to socialism, because they make the workers the owners and decision-makers who run those businesses instead of the state. They are shifting from state-capitalism to SOCIALISM in practice, as a practical step to move socialism forward.

 

Aren't you really describing a social welfare state, rather than "Socialism" the economic system?

 

Although the social welfare aspect of the "Socialism" example of the OP is inviting, it isn't such a great thing in practice.

We have social programs in the USA too, and things like a retirement package in old age from the company you worked for have proven to be unsustainable in the long run. As the few remaining pension funds are on the verge of bankruptcy and will all be gone in a few more years. And, the public option of Social Security will be gone soon too. It shows that social welfare is unsustainable.

In the Soviet Union, just before its collapse, they had cushy social programs, and everyone was fed, clothed, and had a good job with retirement benefits. But, it made them lazy and uninventive. They quickly lost out in innovation to other countries. So, their illusion of the good life was just a generic, bland dream, and after the flash-crash of the USSR, its people lost everything.

Don't give up on the challenges of life! We can't really depend on a strong social system to save us. It's only a matter of time before the system collapses like a house of cards. So, do what you can to set yourself up and weather the storm. And, enjoy life for what it is. An existence that becomes easier as you work for it and prepare for the inevitable bumps in the road that are just around the bend.