Here’s a shocker for you, I don’t like socialism. In fact I’d go so far as to say socialism is one of the more dangerous ideologies that the human race has ever spawned. My main problem with socialism is the fact it can only work if you use violence against the populace.
Socialism is the system of government where the state controls all means of production. The idea sounds all nice and flowery on the surface. The state ensures everybody has a job, home, food, access to health care, etc. In order to provide these services the state must also control society. For instance in order to ensure there is enough food for everybody the state will decide on the number of farmers required to grow enough food.
Ultimately the claimed desire of socialism is to ensure everybody is treated equally in every regard. The problem comes when equal really means the lowest common denominator. I’m not a very eloquent writer but Eugen Richter was. I have a great book for you to read called Pictures of a Socialistic Future. First let me tell you that it’s free from the link I provided (legally even) and short. Second let me tell you it’s also very disturbing.
The book is a fictional diary written by a man who just saw his country turn into a socialist nation. At first the author (of the fictional journal, not the book) is all for it and declares the greatness of socialism. Of course reality comes in as the state exacts more and more control over the populace to make their great system work. People are required to draw for jobs via a lottery because it’s the only fair way to give out jobs. Although work weeks are originally set very low the state constantly has to increase the hours because their country is producing less and thus are running up a trade deficit. Due to people fleeing the state closes the borders off because every person who leaves is one less laborer.
It’s a good book and although it was written as fiction you’ll notice a lot of similarities between what happens in the book’s fictional Germany and what happened on the Soviet side of Germany after World War II. This is even more significant since the book was first translated to English in 1893 meaning Mr. Richter did a good job at predicting what a socialist country would eventually turn into. If you believe socialism can work I’d advise you to read this book and compare it to what happened in Red Germany. After that please try to tell me with a straight face that socialism can work.
Corporatism doesn’t work so great, either, and that’s a bigger threat to America.