You’re a student in a big beautiful city. After graduation, you became a doctor. Now you are sent to a village far away from home to live and work there. And you can’t say “no” because the state knows better where you should live.
You’re a successful plant director, and you are sent to build a big collective farm. You are OK with moving far away because the state needs you there. After some time, you’re told NKVD is searching for you. You say: “It’s a nonsense, I did nothing wrong, it’s a mistake.” Later, you are executed because an anonymous letter against you is enough.
You’re a little girl in a village. The state took away all food, so there’s nothing to eat. Parents send you to the field after harvesting to search for ears of wheat. Adults are executed if they are caught with three ears of wheat, but children are safe, so you regurly go to the field. But it’s not enough, and your parents dig rotten potato, grind it to make potato flour, and bake rotten potato bread. It tastes so awful that you refuse to eat it. Parents try to force you to eat that bread, but you tell them that if they keep trying to force you, you’re not going to the field anymore.
You’re a communist. You know that people disappear at night. But you believe it’s ok because you are told they are bad people hurting the state and society. They are not just people. They are pests.
Literally none of these are an implication of socialism.
Some of these, like taking away all food, are explicitly anti-socialist. Just because states that acted under the name of a socialist government did many of these things, that doesn’t mean that they have anything to do with socialism. That’s like acting as if the current Chinese government were actually socialist instead of being a capitalist oligarchy, or like the Soviet Union under Stalin was anything but a hyper-authoritarian quasi-fascist military regime.
Socialism is expressed in socialist policies in states in Europe too and while it certain somewhat increases the tax burden on society, it alleviates the grueling effects of wage slavery and lack of access to food, as well as in especially well developed cases, allowing for greater personal expression than can be true otherwise in capitalist settings.
Claiming that having to move only happens under authoritarian regimes, completely besides the point of whether or not that is relevant to socialism in general, is in complete disregard to the constant forces exhibited by uncontrolled capitalism, forcing people to move, eat whatever cheap crap they can get and, believe it or not, experiencing how loved ones and acquaintances disappear, not due to the government taking them, but due to the for-profit society grinding them down into addiction, depression and death.
Note that in no way I wish to support any military regime or other undemocratic government. But socialism is the policy of putting the government to work to support society, by having everyone partaking in society assist in supporting those that need it. What you listed is not representative of that ideal and only serves to show the degeneracy of the governments that did so in the name of socialism.
Socialism is expressed in socialist policies in states in Europe too and while it certain somewhat increases the tax burden on society, it alleviates the grueling effects of wage slavery and lack of access to food, as well as in especially well developed cases, allowing for greater personal expression than can be true otherwise in capitalist settings.
I never understood the beef people have with taxes. How can an uncertain individual money supply be better and less anxiety inducing that knowing that you give most of your earnings away but are guaranteed certain essential things for a good quality of life?
Except of course that the tax burden falls disproportionately on the working class still, but that’s another issue. In itself, taxes are amazing. Tax me hard big daddy.
Come on, socialism is an economic system where society owns means of production. That’s what happened in USSR. The problem is, society cannot function without structure. There should be some representatives like secretaries. And those people have more power than others, even more, they can have near absolute power. And those people aren’t the best. As a result, bad people own all society, and there’s nothing to do with it. Under capitalism, if an employer is bad, workers can just quit and find another job. Under socialism, if the employer is bad, there is nothing to do because there is only one employer: the state. Capitalism is not bad, people who have lots of money are bad. But imagine exactly same people gain absolute power. That’s what was in the USSR. Greedy people, who wrote anonymous letters accusing others, benefited from it. They received confiscated flats and furniture. People of power lived better than others, they had better flats, better food, better goods. They were “elite”. All of them were actually higher class. And they stated they were caring for society. All their deeds were for good, they said.
I believe regulated capitalism and democracy are the best for imperfect humans. If people were ideal, any system would work flawlessly. But people are flawed, and any system giving absolute power leads to a state where bad people rule others.
Socialism
You’re a student in a big beautiful city. After graduation, you became a doctor. Now you are sent to a village far away from home to live and work there. And you can’t say “no” because the state knows better where you should live.
You’re a successful plant director, and you are sent to build a big collective farm. You are OK with moving far away because the state needs you there. After some time, you’re told NKVD is searching for you. You say: “It’s a nonsense, I did nothing wrong, it’s a mistake.” Later, you are executed because an anonymous letter against you is enough.
You’re a little girl in a village. The state took away all food, so there’s nothing to eat. Parents send you to the field after harvesting to search for ears of wheat. Adults are executed if they are caught with three ears of wheat, but children are safe, so you regurly go to the field. But it’s not enough, and your parents dig rotten potato, grind it to make potato flour, and bake rotten potato bread. It tastes so awful that you refuse to eat it. Parents try to force you to eat that bread, but you tell them that if they keep trying to force you, you’re not going to the field anymore.
You’re a communist. You know that people disappear at night. But you believe it’s ok because you are told they are bad people hurting the state and society. They are not just people. They are pests.
Literally none of these are an implication of socialism.
Some of these, like taking away all food, are explicitly anti-socialist. Just because states that acted under the name of a socialist government did many of these things, that doesn’t mean that they have anything to do with socialism. That’s like acting as if the current Chinese government were actually socialist instead of being a capitalist oligarchy, or like the Soviet Union under Stalin was anything but a hyper-authoritarian quasi-fascist military regime.
Socialism is expressed in socialist policies in states in Europe too and while it certain somewhat increases the tax burden on society, it alleviates the grueling effects of wage slavery and lack of access to food, as well as in especially well developed cases, allowing for greater personal expression than can be true otherwise in capitalist settings.
Claiming that having to move only happens under authoritarian regimes, completely besides the point of whether or not that is relevant to socialism in general, is in complete disregard to the constant forces exhibited by uncontrolled capitalism, forcing people to move, eat whatever cheap crap they can get and, believe it or not, experiencing how loved ones and acquaintances disappear, not due to the government taking them, but due to the for-profit society grinding them down into addiction, depression and death.
Note that in no way I wish to support any military regime or other undemocratic government. But socialism is the policy of putting the government to work to support society, by having everyone partaking in society assist in supporting those that need it. What you listed is not representative of that ideal and only serves to show the degeneracy of the governments that did so in the name of socialism.
I never understood the beef people have with taxes. How can an uncertain individual money supply be better and less anxiety inducing that knowing that you give most of your earnings away but are guaranteed certain essential things for a good quality of life?
Except of course that the tax burden falls disproportionately on the working class still, but that’s another issue. In itself, taxes are amazing. Tax me hard big daddy.
Come on, socialism is an economic system where society owns means of production. That’s what happened in USSR. The problem is, society cannot function without structure. There should be some representatives like secretaries. And those people have more power than others, even more, they can have near absolute power. And those people aren’t the best. As a result, bad people own all society, and there’s nothing to do with it. Under capitalism, if an employer is bad, workers can just quit and find another job. Under socialism, if the employer is bad, there is nothing to do because there is only one employer: the state. Capitalism is not bad, people who have lots of money are bad. But imagine exactly same people gain absolute power. That’s what was in the USSR. Greedy people, who wrote anonymous letters accusing others, benefited from it. They received confiscated flats and furniture. People of power lived better than others, they had better flats, better food, better goods. They were “elite”. All of them were actually higher class. And they stated they were caring for society. All their deeds were for good, they said.
I believe regulated capitalism and democracy are the best for imperfect humans. If people were ideal, any system would work flawlessly. But people are flawed, and any system giving absolute power leads to a state where bad people rule others.