Socialism and Human Nature
and the proper function of government
I’ve seen the dictionary definition of socialism. I was really surprised when I first read it because that’s not how socialism is practiced in the real world. A system where the “collective” (always the government) owns the means of production is “communism” not “socialism.”
You’ll notice in definition #3 that Marx (whom I have never read, actually) refers to socialism as “imperfect.” It’s because socialism allows for private ownership. He thought that would always be a big problem, apparently. But then, he thought the aristocracy would never go away without violence.
Marx was wrong about a lot of things.
Capitalism and socialism are both strong human impulses. Capitalism will never go away. It didn’t go away in the USSR, even though it was heavily criminalized. People were willing to risk death in the gulags to provide a hungry public with designer jeans.
Socialism is the human impulse to take care of the weak. It’s an impulse as old as mankind. It is also founded in the human desire for fairness. When someone retires at work we all chip in for the gift so that the burden doesn’t fall too harshly on one person.
Socialism and Capitalism moderate each other. Unchecked capitalism causes economic booms and crashes and untold human suffering. Communism (unchecked socialism) stifles human creativity and also wrecks economies. Each system alone is a horrorshow.
Communism sounds, on paper, like a win-win. Everybody gets what they need. But it doesn’t take real economics into account. In a communist system it’s impossible to determine the value of goods and services because market forces aren’t allowed to operate and entrepreneurial activity is criminalized.
The Russian Revolution occurred in 1917 and when the USSR fell, the first reporters on the scene said it felt like the entire country was a living museum of the 1920s. Nothing had progressed. The same thing is true of Cuba. They’ve been driving the same cars since the 1950s and now those cars are extremely valuable antiques. They never innovated or progressed.
Pure capitalism always degenerates into feudalism. The instant someone makes their pile, any thought of innovation or risk goes out the window. You end up with a few unproductive wealthy families full of parasites (Donald Trump and Co. being prime examples).
Denmark and most countries with strong social safety nets, have more entrepreneurial startups than the US. That’s because there is no worry about a failure being catastrophic. There’s a minimum income and universal health care. That means you are free to take risks. If you make your pile, a portion of that pile will go to help people who either failed or didn’t have the intelligence or creativity to be more than a worker in the check out lane. No worries. Society needs people like that too. And those people also get sick and get old and will need care. And a portion of their income will have been put back into the pot to contribute to that care. They are not viewed as “takers” because they didn’t contribute as much to the pot as the people who own the store.
It all depends on how you view the function of government. In Ayn Rand World(tm) the function of government is to keep rich people rich. That means as little democracy as possible (voter suppression) and no protections for anyone but the rich (no regulations!).
In Socialist Word(tm) the function of government is to make sure that everyone has a voice and that everyone has the best life possible in a sad and dangerous world. That means capitalism must flourish, but not become an invasive weed.
