Is socialism actully bad and can you explain why?

Dear All

I've doing my EPQ on socialism I was just wondering whether I could get some infomation from the public. Is socialism actully bad and why, I hear that it is bad from people but no one had given me a direct and well thought out reason why it is bad, hope you can help.

P.S. Don't start taking about comunism thats a different thing just talk about Socialism please

 

Yes, I most certainly can. The answer is very simple: Socialism is bad because it does not work. If we set the goal as being "to allocate scarce resources as efficiently as possible to the benefit of the common good" and compare it with competitive capitalism, that is. There is some confusion as to what socialism actually is. Socialism basically means two things: an economic system with "social control of the means of production" and a collective management of the economy, and an ideology or family of ideologies which promote the former. With this definition in mind, I'll just dispel some common misunderstandings right away: Sweden does not have a socialist economy and never had, and the USSR did have a socialist economy. Socialism, as an economic system, has been so discredited that very few countries still use it. It is only Cuba and perhaps one or two more countries which still have socialist economies. In the field of economics, this debate was won as early as in the 1920's, atleast theoretically. The utter failure of the USSR and other socialist countries provided the undeniable empirical evidence.

Now, why exactly doesn't socialism work? There are several reasons. One major reason is the absence of a functioning price system, since everything is owned by the same entity -usually the state. For there to be prices there needs to be several actors which bid for scarce resources. The law of supply and demand makes sure that prices react to changes in supply and demand, and the prices adjust accordingly and send scarce resources to where they are most valued. In a socialist economy, prices needs to be set by a commission, and they have to keep track of literally millions of prices. This is an impossible task, especially considering how the economy is always changing. This meant that the prices did not relfect the economic realities, and that resources were not used to the most value.

 

It also removes any incentive to excel. Incentive is why some form of capitalism works so well.

 

Yes, it is bad. The premise of socialism denies the basic fact that some people are simply more capable than others, At its core it creates an obligation on the contributing class to sustain the consuming class. In pragmatic terms, it punishes innovation and achievement, and rewards the lowest common denominator.

 

There are two reasons why socialism cannot work.

1. It penalizes hard work and dedication while rewarding laziness.
2. It depends on government to administer benefits, and government is where the biggest criminals in society congregate, and steal the peoples money.

 

You can make socialism sound good and warm and fuzzy, particularly if you ignore peoples basic nature.

But socialists are the most murderous people in history. Socialism requires its philosophy be imposed on people, that requires force, and that requires a lot of power to be held by a small group of people. That concentration of power attracts the kind of people that want to use that power, they are called tyrants.

No matter how theoretically good something is, if it requires a high concentration of power then it will fail because people are flawed.

 

All the above, and the simple fact that you run out of other peoples money. Socialism has always be a failure.

 

In the best case scenario, socialism makes everything in the economy subject to rule of the majority. Consumer choice is virtually non-existent. Production is determined by politics rather than whether everyone wants what is produced.

This is all very, very bad.

The hipster morons who advocate it don't even realize their (*)(*)(*)(*)ing no-whip hazelnut caramel machiatto wouldn't exist if they got what they wanted, because most people don't give a (*)(*)(*)(*) and wouldn't tell the government to waste their tax money on it. It's because we have capitalism a market exists for that product, and thus that the product itself exists.

 

Socialism has a 100% success rate... Of failing.

We, the US have become the richest, most powerful nation in the history of the planet by fighting against socialism. To this day, people from all over the world where some form of socialism exists, do whatever they can to come to the US.

 

What type of socialism are we speaking of? There have been many variations, some better than others.

 

Democratic socialism doesn't really count as socialism.

 

Yes it does.

It's socialist. The means of production are controlled by society via the government. That is socialism.

 

Socialism has always created large intrusive governments. It can't help istself as such are the first requirement for addressing the things socialists consider unjust and large intrusive governments are always antithetical to human liberty.

 

Ah, No Good Ideology theory

 

Socialism and communism are inseparable ideologies.

 

History suggests that socialism works better in smaller nations. The larger and more diverse a nation is, the harder it is for policies to be designed that benefit the people intended to be benefited. Too much decision making concentrates in too few hands, usually the people who live in the same area who just do not realize what life is like outside their bubble.

 

Capitalism removes incentives also. Under socialism you give most of your earnings to the government, but under capitalism you give most of your earnings to an idle, parasitic landowner … not much difference really.

 

Doesn't how involved an individual is/can be with the government and it's laws, change how "intrusive" a government really is whether it is large or small, decentralized or centralized? In reality socialism is more about advocating worker rights and say towards production and making sure people are paid relative to the actual job that they are doing. Social freedoms are external to this being not mutually exclusive to the socially regulated economy. For an example a society can lean more libertarian socialist. It is also trying to make sure capitalists can't become overly powerful and maybe spreading that wealth around if they do. A truly capitalist society will always eventually collapse on itself or turn into fascism unchecked without some external checks and balances. People are always misunderstanding what socialism is. It has always existed as a response to class systems like unrestricted capitalism and always will. Any restrictions positively enforcing worker equality within the framework of the society(government), is already inherently socialist. One needs to go no further. Every advanced nation on earth is socialist and yes of course it works. A common misconception of what it actually is confuses a lot of otherwise similar minded people into thinking it's somehow bad.

Communism is completely different and could only exist in a society that had virtually endless resources where no one can horde resources since they have no reason too. There are no classes and everyone shares everything, since personal property basically becomes irrelevant with virtually unlimited resources. Or maybe on a very small scale where it is a cultural normality to exist in that state.

 

We have also become the most indebted nation in the history of the planet. We are dependant on (and deeply in debt to) Mexico for crying-out-loud.

 

Sure because America is not a socialist nation in denial

 

At least the officials in a democratic government are supposed to represent you...

 

Ever since that Reagan guy everything has sure gone downhill. That damn war propaganda.

 

Socialism primarily fails in it's lack of flexibility, it lacks the ability to react to market shifts the way a free market can. Capitalism is weakest in it's lack of incentive for innovation or effort. That might sound strange, but money is actually a terrible incentive for performance and career goals.

 

I fixed it for you.

Just not true. See all of Europe. Yep, they are totally all flooding over here.