As our middle class continues to shrink at a record rate thanks to our shift over to oligarch socialism, the present would seem an apt time to reexamine the question of what kind of socialists we want to be. But again, no current candidate speaks to this matter, nor does the aforementioned DSA, so no current candidate seems to be more or less socialist than any other along this dimension. It is the collective ownership of business, industry, and labor better known as the means of production by those who do the labor. To understand what is meant by socialism and its contrast term individualism, then, you must first clarify which dimension or phase ofasocietys process of production you have in mind. Such services have traditionally been the responsibility of state and local governments. Well, for starters there is the question of who should own, control, or benefit by these inputs disposition in the productive process. If it were truly democratic, the ability to overturn the system by any majority demanding a different economic system would have to exist indefinitely. Its also how theyre able to conflate their own interests with a larger public or national interest under a capitalist system, theres some truth to their claim. Librariesproduce (enable would be a better term)an informed and entertained society. The list goes on and on. Was Reagan, who spent billions in public (public) money on national (national) defense, and whose tax code took 50% from the top bracket, socialist?, I dunno you tell me. Not least because so many now seem to have so many distinct things in mind when they have anything definite in mind as they name-check socialism and its many putative adherents. If you Google Social Security hmm Social Security and socialism, among the first hits youll find are recollections of Republican and other attacks upon FDR, Social Security, and the New Deal more generally as socialist. Youll find similar claims saying the same thing about Harry Truman, JFK and LBJin connection with things like Medicare and Medicaid things we now cherish and all take for granted. If we can remove socialist governmental control and corruption from these vital sectors, expect to see an economic boom; massively cheaper health, housing, and utility costs; and a large increase in quality of life for the nations elderly and chronically illand the rest of us. What is it to be more socialist or more individualist along this dimension? Change), You are commenting using your Facebook account. In countries that actually practiced socialism, there is an alarming history of dissenters being silenced, sometimes violently. But that doesnt make the practice prudent or proper. For the sake of concision, then, let me propose what I think is a reasonably straightforward method of terminological housekeeping that can keep both our words and our thoughts a bit clearer than they now seem to be. It is a limited form of socialism, though, because the Fire Department doesnt produce any commodity. By simply looking at the size of government in terms of overall spending, many argue that the US is becoming increasingly socialist whether it wants to or not. Copyright 2000 - 2023 The Epoch Times Association Inc. All Rights Reserved. There is no 'pure socialism,' 'pure individualism . Is it about the mechanisms by which resources, goods, or services move from some hands or uses to others? Detroit's mayor and city council recently made Eric Jones the next fire commissioner. Something else? Abolish the postal system, the police, and the military: all social. Post office at Alamo, May 1972. No centralized Department of Education. [See Bernie Sanders' Lies?] closely held corporations autocratic personal fiefdoms. Such an expansion of popular power would be neededto both push out personnel committed to the old regime and to transform the often alienating and repressive bureaucracies that currently administer public services. Its started again The S word socialism has returned to brisk circulation. You can easily fact check why police and fire departments are not socialism by examining the linked well-known sources. (Lincolns Homestead Act and Land Grant Act were products of this vision.) Admirable goals at the time, but both could be better handled by the private sector today. Socialism means that the means of production are owned by the workers. Additionally we host events, provide commentary for traditional media shows, and give speeches to groups of all sizes. Are access to these things rights, or are they luxuries? They are simply the collective defense mechanisms that any free society needs to protect its citizens rights and property. We wouldnt have to change the purpose of any existing programs, nor would we have to reform the administrative structures of government agencies. Medicare PartD offers some subsidies to low-income seniors, but its widely recognized as a costly giveaway to the prescription drug industry. And still others involve the vast apparatus of coercion and force (police departments, the FBI, the CIA, the military, courts, prisons, and jails). Click on the link and youll find something interesting: what DSA calls for in essence is just FDRs Second Bill of Rights, which the great New Dealer planned to pursue after the Second World War till he died just a few months before it ended in 1945. If the government takes large chunks of your wealth to fund whomever it wants to please, thats socialism. Madison argued that state power extends to issues that "concern the lives, liberties, and properties of the people, and the internal order, improvement, and prosperity of the State." Nowhere in the. Key questions about that state activity always need to be asked: does it reinforce or undermine the power of those who own capital? Eventually, the argument was settled by the use of concrete, definite qualifications that decided whether a Tomato was indeed a fruit or a vegetable. Trumps penchant for cronyism, moreover, along with his comfort with the growing practice of share-buybacks that have drawn legislation from Senators Sanders and Baldwin, are classically autocratic preferences they disenfranchise existing diffuse shareholders in favor of smaller coteries of smaller groups with more concentrated ownership. Senator Sanderss Corporate Accountability and Democracy Plan, on which full disclosure this author assisted, does likewise. Its a price free people willingly pay to stay free. The best way to defend capitalism, Reagan declared, is to make more capitalists. Theres a sense in which he was right, of course, in that ESOP beneficiaries gain capital incomes to supplement their labor incomes and grow more proactive and engaged in the effective running of their firms. Because fighting invaders or a necessary foreign war requires a national public effort. No government education loans. Now let us turn to our economic, or what I will also call our productive, activities and arrangements. However, many hospitals are privately owned and controlled, and many operate at a profit. Sign up for ourDaily Digestemail newsletter to receive intellectually engaging content and updates from our organization straight to your inbox. And if capitalism is in some sense a contrast term relative to socialism, then what are we to make of such terms as state capitalism and market socialism, crony capitalism and democratic socialism, so often used in but slightly more specialized contexts than those of mere punditry? No. By rejecting non-essential cookies, Reddit may still use certain cookies to ensure the proper functionality of our platform. In the US and most free market societies, roads are built when an exchange of capital takes place between the public and private sectors. Republic, Democracy, and Monarchy are all forms of government. Again, then, it seems that where matters political are concerned, we are all of us socialist, be we republic-name-checking Republicans or democracy-name-checking Democrats. But just because its a part of the government doesnt make it socialist.. All public education controlled at the county and state levels. Public schools, welfare departments, planning agencies, courts, and all other government agencies would invite workers and recipients to participate in the design and implementation of those services. Fact: In 1806, more than a decade before Karl Marx was born, the United States Congress passed, and President Thomas Jefferson signed, legislation authorizing construction of the Cumberland Road, an interstate highway that would stretch more than 600 miles, connecting the Potomac and Ohio Rivers. Heres what I mean in a bit more detail. Socialism is about redistribution of wealth. But lets be honest: thats probably not the case. People pay taxes and the government then gives it to others, whether they have contributed toward the cost of the service or not. Lets begin by identifying one source of confusion one reason that there are so many socialisms and, therefore, so many non-socialisms: While the word social can be readily understood in distinction from individual, the words socialism and individualism are more difficult to make sense of as contrast terms, because so few of us specify which realms of activity we have in mind when we use them. Which takes us straight to the third and final dimension I proposed earlier for unpacking economic questions in getting clear about socialism the output dimension. After all, if our country wasalready at least partly socialist, then all we wouldhave to do iskeep gradually expanding government. Our national debt now stands at $15.8 trillion , up from $10.6 when Obama took office. In some ways its nonetheless regrettable, however, that we tend to focus on outputs alone. In fact, you could say that these redefining tactics happen intentionally for the very reason of defeating logic: Sure but thats not what it means to me.. The list goes on and on. For all of Bernie Sanderss virtues, his campaign for president has only thickened the fog of ideological confusion. If a politician does it, he gets reelected. It is but an example of the central government is infringing on the traditional domain of the states. If we start now, there will be minimal pain as we will see a rebirth of the efficient and personal friendly societies and private insurance and savings schemes that used to fulfill these roles. Today, We Should Do the Same for the Global South. Only a united public effort can adequately defend a whole nation or territory from invasion or defeat a dangerous enemy abroad. Should there be some hybrid of planned economics and market economics? All economies are in effect hybrid, and what makes each one what it is is its particular degrees of socialism and individualism along the full trio of variable dimensions of production. Use a private highway and you pay a small electronically collected fee, just as most public tolls are collected now. Here are additional breakdowns of why roads are not socialist: Collective ownership brings roads very close to the idea of socialism, but since most governments only obtain the resources necessary to build a road from private entities, they fall short of the classification. The Constitution agrees. After all, governments are dependent on some minimally robust level of economic activity to fund themselves. Allyson Hinzman, a firefighter and the president of Tacoma Firefighters Local 31 in Washington, said local unions are opposed to Democratic Gov. When that is the case, societies whose members hold democratic values treat those matters as political meaning the full polity, or what our Greek philosophical forebears called the polis and afford the full demos Greek for the people a say in deciding upon them. Benjamin Franklin pioneered public libraries, and Thomas Jefferson built public schools to educate a new frontier society. Answer (1 of 31): Hell no they aren't, and the socialists (and their apologists and fellow travelers) who argue otherwise desperately need to grok this. Capitalism and social programs exist in most countries. They are a public resource, and one that incurs a personal financial burden if you would like to use them in addition to the social contribution. For inputs and processes are as constitutive of our productive arrangements as outputs are, and in a way they are far more important because they are more determinative than anything else in determining the distribution of outputs themselves. The next best option is a mix of public and private education, but completely free from centralized government control. The cooperative government has control over the economy. And these claims continue to this day. Socialism, no matter what you learned in High School, is a labor inspired revolution aimed at defeating the class barriers and wealth inequality created by capitalism. For too long now, fire departments across the United States have been socialist organizations, resulting in taxes on the American people. The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) has brought much-needed relief to the working poor, but it also serves as an indirect subsidy for low-wage employers. Roads are collectively owned infrastructure, and created under the capitalist mode of production. No taxpayer-funded charter schools. Mixing the profit motive of the private sector with the low accountability levels of the public sector is a recipe for corruption and co-option by radicals. Its been shown time and again that many people who say they love socialism cannot accurately describe its basic tenets if their life depended on it. Indeed each one has. Fire departments could be considered a socialist program if the government was only made up of, and meant to represent, the proletariat MozeoSLT 4 yr. ago As are the police, yes. There is socialism, like the fire department. No. The state acts on that belief by entitling all Alaskans to dividends from the Alaska Permanent Fund a sort of oil-based Andrew Yang Freedom Dividend for all Alaskans. I will concede, though, that often even some of the emergency services could be better handled by private institutions. Hinzman said it was . FACT: Most Americans never use the socialized services of the fire department. It might be helpful, then, to sort some things out sos to get clearer on what were all talking about when we talk about socialism.. There are no more "workplaces". These are as undemocratic as can be, more feudal than capitalist (they produce little more than a Trump brand to attach to already existing assets). It isnt socialism. Why? It also turns out, as it happens, that it is impossible to be either 100% individualistic or 100% socialistic along any of these three dimensions. Roads dont producewealth quite so much as they enableproductivity and consumption. 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