The New Republic’s contributing editor and Guardian columnist Osita Nwanevu had a curious posting this week as he offered a new definition of socialism for the public: socialism is simply cheaper products. Even Dell apparently is a socialist enterprise under Nwanevu’s new take. Capitalism? Anything that is too expensive. In other words, voters should elect socialists if they like sales.
There is a rising number of Democratic Socialists in Congress and in the Democratic party. Many are seeking to push this trend by getting young voters to identify as socialists. It may be working. Polls show that socialism is now as popular as capitalism with young voters.
Hopefully, they have a better handle on the subject than Nwanevu, who has also written for the New Yorker, Slate, and Harper’s.
“Fundamentally, socialism is about buying affordable consumer products. Are you an Android user? That’s socialism. Do you have a Dell? That’s socialism. Shop at H&M? That’s socialism. The more expensive your stuff is, the more capitalist it is. Marx lays this out in Capital.”
It is wonderful to see those socialists hard at work at that proletarian paradise. . . Dell.
It is not clear where Marx laid out that socialism is like a never-ending Black Friday sale. He did say that “a commodity appears, at first sight, a very trivial thing, and easily understood. Its analysis shows that it is, in reality, a very queer thing, abounding in metaphysical subtleties and theological niceties. ”
However, Marx was not exactly keen on the capitalist production system, even at a discount. He declared “Accumulate, accumulate! This is Moses and the Prophets!” He also noted “Just as man is governed, in religion, by the products of his own brain, so, in capitalist production, he is governed by the products of his own hand.”
Putting that aside, socialist and communist systems historically have resulted in cheaper but fewer products. The old Soviet joke: A man walks into a shop. He asks the clerk, “You don’t have any meat?” The clerk says, “No, here we don’t have any fish. The shop that doesn’t have any meat is across the street.”
The infamous five-year plans of the Soviet Union led to widespread starvation and reduction of goods. What was produced was cheap but shoddy:
“For example, in the 1970s the Soviet Union produced 800 million shoes every year—enough to provide every citizen with three new pairs. But the quality, design, and fit were often so poor that many residents had to spend hours looking for a perfect pair, or buy imported shoes at vastly higher prices.”
Under no interpretation of Marx would Dell undercutting the market be viewed as socialism at work. To the contrary, such supply and demand decisions are more in line with Adam Smith than Karl Marx. The invisible hand of Smith favors certain goods and price points.
You can clearly have soft socialist systems that centralize economies and force the redistribution of wealth without the authoritarianism of communist. They are not synonymous. There are also variations of socialism from command economies to “market socialism.”
However, socialism also has not been shown to reduce prices as much as reducing products. Indeed, systems in countries like Venezuela often trigger rampant inflation and other collateral crippling economic problems.
Still confused, here is the famous primer often used on the rivaling systems in the context of a farmer with two cows:
Socialism: If you have two cows, the Government takes one and gives it to your neighbor.
Communism: If you have two cows, Government takes both and then gives you some milk.
Fascism: If you have two cows, you keep the cows and give the milk to the Government; then the government sells you some milk.
New Dealism: If you have two cows, you shoot one and milk the other; then you pour the milk down the drain.
Nazism: If you have two cows, the Government shoots you and keeps the cows.
Capitalism: If you have two cows, you sell one and buy a bull.
Turley delivers a gem.
Love the cow example.
Unfortunately most today would read the tripe and think that its correct.
Remember the DSA believe that the ends justify the means. So say or do whatever it takes to win.
And when they win, you lose.
Dear Prof Turley,
You should stick with the law. .. instead of laying down the law on something as ephemeral as The Invisible Hand!
First of all, the ‘old Soviet Union’ died kaput over 30 years ago. It pains me to say it, but Modern Russians are probably more ‘market oriented’ Capitalists than we are, especially re global oil commodities (see e.g. Biden’s holy writ ‘Sanctions’ and subsequent price of MY gasoline at the pump.). Having learned their lessons well back in the recent unpleasantness – i.e. centralized/planned economies don’t work – the modern Russian economy (and currency) is now one of the top performing economies in the world, despite the war in Ukraine. And the future looks bright. .. God, I miss the Cold War!
[see also Putin’s recent 3 hour presser: it was anything but ‘rambling’ as described in the U.S. media – if you want ‘rambling’ see Joe Biden’s 3 minute pressers omg!]
Moreover, people are not widgets. If education (or healthcare) e.g. is the quickest route out of any social ill, and I believe it is, then some form of investment in social – public – education seems prudent. The answer to noxious ‘woke’ ideologies permeating public education today (e.g. sexual discrimination is *not* the same thing as racial/ethnic discrimination and never will be.) is not to subject it to the cold, hard vagaries of ‘supply and demand’ – else the rising tide of elite private ‘greed is good’ [Trump ish] Universities will drown-out the poor and uneducated masses.
Clearly, no economic system that allows a few to live in gold-plated opulence at the expense of the many is not viable. A rising tide only lifts those who have boats.
There are untold millions of ‘Invisible Hands’ sending out urgent SOS signals here and around the world as we speak. .. especially in Ukraine and Gaza!
Capitalism; in a devil’s bargain Joe Biden will limit immigration to 1 million today, if you give him another 100 billion to finish the job tomorrow.
*it is sad when governments are cheaped by the devil tongue; no paper, constitution or economic treatise ‘can hold the iron .. . it must come from men’s heart’ ~ chief ten bears
ps. congrats, feather in your cap, on the recent law review article on ‘rage’ .. . it really pisses me off. \../
Inarguably throughout the world the larger the portion of people who have moved even a little towards free markets the more standard of living has risen FOR ALL.
Any nation – even china that has moved – even a little towards free markets has significantly improved the standard of living of its people.
Any nation that has moved – even a little towards socialism has reduced the improvement in its standard of living.
Ultimately the real issue is NOT socialism per say – but statism. The more powerful the state is the poorer the people will be.
The greater freedom people have – including economic freedom the better off they are.
While there is a lower limit below which less government actually does result in societal decline the data we have has that inflection point lower than anything any developed nation has ever had.
Lincoln won the civil war with total government – federal state local below 10% of the economy.
I wonder how many current college students know Marx was Jewish? Granted, blank stares would be their reaction, but it’d be fun to watch either way.
I wonder how many would view communal capitalism.
Is it socialism?
Or is it capitalism?
To give you an example… a farming community creates a grain co-op where farmers bring their grain in to the silos for sale.
Or a Kibbutz.
-G
Perhaps neither. A grain co-op is not a form of government in the traditional meaning.
The issue is freedom – everything else is semantics.
If something is imposed by force – aka government, it is immoral.
As to free individuals choosing to act together – great.
What is the difference between a grain co-op, a Kibutz, a monestary and a corporation ?
All of these are free individuals chosing to act together as a group.
They may succeed or fail, but it was still a free choice.
When government steps in and says it WILL be this way – that is a problem.
Only the owner of private property has the power to “claim and exercise” dominion.
Capitalist, or free enterprise, owners may do whatever they choose with their private property.
“Dictatorship of the proletariat,” “dictatorship of the hired help,” and “dictatorship of the monarch” are unconstitutional.
@JAFO
Likely zero. That isn’t what matters. What matters is that these people are voting now, and they are voting against you, just because. I think the purge should happen through marginalization, personally, rather than violence or the brutal enforcement of law, but if we want that to happen, every single person that knows better needs to start voting differently, for everything, right now.
This may seem like a game to those of us that know better; our knowing better doesn’t matter to the impetuous that don’t understand it isn’t a game, and they don’t. They never will, in fact. We are looking at a couple of lost generations, and we can either contain that or be run over by it. It’s *going* to be one of those two things; we need to decide which one we want to experience. Stop thinking of ‘the children’ and start thinking about yourself, because we are all going to have to live in this world. The children can come later after we’ve straightened things out.
James, agree in whole on the first paragraph. On the second…while I’m about as cynical as one can be, I’ve haven’t reached the point where the country will be lost in the next generation due to younger people voting against their own interests. The two behind us (presuming you’re also gen-x or older) will quickly come around when their own start grifting one another or perhaps sooner if they’re constripted into a firing war with one of the countries they admire today, like Gaza, Cuba or Venezuela. It won’t be a 180 degree turn right away, but they will eventually face reality – some people only learn things, literally, the hard way – and some will never learn. We mostly hear about the rabble-rousers legacy media wants to promote, not the normal to brightest we have to offer. Of course, I could be wrong, but I’m not ready to give up on the ones who are putting in the time and effort to better themselves to make positive contributions to this nation.
” The labor force participation rate was little changed at 62.8 percent and has been essentially flat since August.Dec 8, 2023 ” bls dot gov
So we have a majority still “improving themselves and contributing to society”. That’s the number for capable adults not institutionalized, so the real percentage is less, maybe 60% as a guess. Include children and retired and we are definitely below 50% I’d say.
So we are in trouble with more than half of the population at any time apparently not gainfully employed, though that may very well be incorrect perception.
Let’s take a traditional family with the male head of household earner. We have a wife and at least three children, that’s only 20% working in the “economy” or “the markets” with 80 percent ON THE DOLE.
I think the modern jackjaw mockingbird media and social war contagion has really screwed up people’s perceptions.
Even if the wife was working because of Sally the riveter post war employment we’re still at 60% not employed so we are not really in some dire hole as many want us to believe. Women have taken employment from men and thus we have the current on the dole situation, which no doubt the feds FDR the great society etc all helped along.
“I think the modern jackjaw mockingbird media and social war contagion has really screwed up people’s perceptions.” Yes. This is perhaps the most difficult problem America has right now, a near completely political, anti-American, “free” press. Yet, that same media continues to lose viewers/listeners/readers and most importantly ‘respect and trust’ of the majority of American’s. Heck, they’re being mocked by their counterparts in the rest of the English-speaking world. Will they learn? Probably not before going bankrupt financially (they’re already morally bankrupt). The rest of this countries real problems are still solvable and I still have faith the generations behind mine are not as ‘lost’ as freaks we see in and on legacy media 24/7.
“What is the worldly religion of the Jew? Huckstering. What is his worldly God? Money.…. Money is the jealous god of Israel, in face of which no other god may exist. Money degrades all the gods of man – and turns them into commodities…. The bill of exchange is the real god of the Jew. His god is only an illusory bill of exchange…. The chimerical nationality of the Jew is the nationality of the merchant, of the man of money in general.”
Karl Marx, On the Jewish Question 1844.
Being born Jewish and being Jewish are too separate things.
So is being a rabid zionist and screaming we’re all (jews) going to die for your entire life.
Shakdi, you are not making much sense. Zionism can be said to be a return to the land of the Jews. In 1948, when the green line was drawn, Israel got one-fifth of the land they were promised. The surrounding Arab nations refused to accept that border, wanting Israel and Jews eliminated. They lost each war. Yet now that Saudi Arabia and others wish for a resolution of the problem, we saw Hamas savagely attack Israel.
Most of the land Israel won in 1948 reduced its size and left Israel with a lot of desert and a lack of natural resources such as oil. It is a spec on the map compared to the Arab nations that killed and forced Sephardic Jews out of their land. Most settled in Israel, where their ancestors came from.
Your rabid hatred against Israel and the Jews, along with your lack of knowledge at best, makes you a pariah.
Socialism is the system imposed upon the people but never upon the imposers. They will always be on the parade’s reviewing stand while the rest stand on lines waiting for state bread.
“The New Republic’s contributing editor and Guardian columnist Osita Nwanevu had a curious posting this week as he offered a new definition of socialism for the public: socialism is simply cheaper products.”
******************************
Begging the question which is, of course, who is Osita Nwanevu and why should we care one wit about what he writes, thinks or does. Being a “contributing editor and Guardian columnist” these days simply means you got your perfunctory A in some Journalism School, have a leftist agenda and have access to a laptop. Oh and credential one is optional both for schooling and grades.
@Mespo
I don’t disagree, this is a useful idiot, but our youth are following these people, absorbing their idiocy, and they don’t identify with personalities – they identify with the commonality of the messages they see over and over again. May not matter to a fully self-actualized person like you, but it has a tremendous influence on the aforementioned, and unless one is planning to die in the next 10-20 years, it’s gonna have an impact on you too. We are all going to have to live in the world we are creating so we’d better pay attention to what is going into the recipe.
“Give me just one generation of youth, and I’ll transform the whole world.”
– Vladimir Lenin
Excellent and entertaining column, Prof. Turley. The joke about the two cows was on the wall of my father’s office in the mid-1970s, but it is perpetually true.
Unfortunately it manages, as many people do also, to imply that capitalism can be classified as a political system with all those others. Capitalism is nothing more than free markets and property rights operating with borrowed money — (Schumpeter, not me). It’s not a political system. Once the disease of any collectivism takes hold in a society it becomes extremely difficult to stamp out.
What really lowers consumer prices while improving services and products is: Healthy free market competition.
Many Republicans instead support monopolies, minimizing competition and excessive occupational licensing schemes – it’s not socialism but not healthy free market competition either.
A great non-partisan site is Reason.com (Reason Magazine). This non-partisan site cuts through all of this BS, pointing out what both parties do to disrupt healthy free market competition to lower consumer prices and improve services/products.
I like reason – alot, buit claiming they are non-partisan is false. They are just not republican or democrat.
Many reason writers that I think are great are still totally wrong on important things.
They are just usually much better at making their arguments.
Anyone that thinks socialism is anything but what we experienced during the lockdown is a mindless fool or well positioned tool. Granted, some people were perfectly ok with that. They are not the ones who should be in positions of authority for the rest of us.
The rise of totalitarianism across the west is shocking, yet also not surprising if one has followed the trends of the past couple of decades. Vote differently, or that sneak preview of an elitist-ruled hell will simply be daily life. Yes, these people are serious. We have to be equally serious in our opposition.
The New Republic once a respectable journal of the Center Left is now clearly a piece of garbage. I grew up in a “liberal” household that subscribed the that magazine. While not my cup of tea, at least it was well written with cogent if not always persuasive arguments for its viewpoint. This editor is both stupid and ignorant and has not the slightest understanding of basic economics. Probably a proud graduate of an elite university with a major in queer studies
Alan, it is the same as the Guardian, the LA Times, the Boston Globe and the NY Times. They are run by little girls that are fresh out of J Schools that have taught them that objectivity is a sin.
If you don’t believe me about these so-called institutions being run by little girls just read the story by the former editor of the NY Times, James Bennet, and how the little girls screeched that allowing SENATOR Tom Cotton to write an editorial was putting them “all in danger”.
Also, check out the press room at KJP’s “briefings” in order to see all the 23 year old “reporters”. Remember when Jen Psaki brought them all cookies that her mother made and how they all squealed with delight. EMBARRASSING.
And remember that AOC was a graduate in economics from Boston University! Unbelievable
We should teach the students about socialism and communism by simply having anyone that gets an “A” for a course be given a “B” with their extra credits going to others so that the “C” students can also get a “B”.
Ooops, I already sense the flaw in my plan, the students will all just do less work knowing that they will all simply get a “B” for doing “C” level work. This is how socialism and communism destroy a nations economic power which is why the leftists on campus and those running the campus use it to destroy the west that they hate so much.
We have been importing unskilled workers and exporting jobs. I not sure what the US creates anymore except for the printing of money, and something called the “news”.
Soon we will be out of money, freedoms, and all debate will cease. Enjoy it while you can and pray for your children and grandchildren.
“I not sure what the US creates anymore except for the printing of money, and something called the “news”.
+++
But then MUSK.
There is much wrong with the US, but you broad claims are incorrect.
Rising standard of living requires creating more that humans value with less human effort.
A continuously rising standard of living in the US requires that one way or another fewer of us do low value jobs and more of us do high values ones. We can give these low value jobs to the mexicans or the chinese or to robots. But if we keep them we trap those doing them in a lower standard of living.
I would further note that we are in the midst of deglobalization. The US specifically is in the midst of reindustrialization, while significant parts of the west as well as china are actually deindustrializing.
The US is no longer capable of its 20th century role as the guarantor of global trade.
The current Ukraine war is the last gasp of Russia as a global super power. Possibly even as a regional one.
While there is likely to be a peace deal – as well as Ukraine is doing they can not survive a war of attrition against Russia.
At the same time they have solidly demonstrated that Russia is incapable of standing up to any two european nations.
The US is bowing out of Europe and the mideast. The US focus in the future will be the pacific rim, the anglosphere, central america and south america – in that order.
Increasingly the US is not interested in and not dependent on Europe or european trade,
Nor is the US interested in the mideast – an interest that has primarily benefited Europe not the US.
Russia right now is more powerful than it has been in decades.
It took on the entirety of Europe and the USA, and won.
500,000 dead Ukrainians, in the meat grinder. Russia producing armaments at 50X + the rate of the west.
The idiots of the west woke the hibernating bear.
The reason the idiots in power want Putin out is he has been great for Russia, Christianity, traditional values, and nationality.
America needs manufacturing jobs not growth and development. We’re destroying our most fertile land with urban sprawl developments that are built by illegals to house illegals being subsidized by our own tax dollars. Who gets rich?
However, socialism also has not been shown to reduce prices as much as reducing products. Indeed, systems in countries like Venezuela often trigger rampant inflation and other collateral crippling economic problems.
that is putting it mildly. I have relatives in Venezuela who fled Cuba. An aunt died a few years ago in Venezuela from starvation. Since then there is no communication between family in Venezuela and any of us in the USA. Venezuela is a catastrophe.
The response of the Left to the raping, enslavement and abuse of women in Gaza, West Bank, Afghanistan, et al, and how Hamas treated women and children of Israel on Oct 7 and thereafter, surprised no one who has ever followed the lies, propaganda and authoritarianism typified by the Left these past 100 years. Biden’s supporters are part of that ilk. The New York Times pulitzer prize winner, Walter Duranty, is alive and well today. So it follows that the Left today in America herald Marxism as our savior, much like they showered accolades on Fidel Castro (e.g. New York Times, Time Magazine, MSM, etc).
Venezuela is an example of the massive crisis that has unfolded since Hugo Chavez nationalized the country’s industries, with Ernesto Maduro, as his successor, going full Joseph Stalin. Women, children, and the elderly, are suffering egregiously in Venezuela, people with HIV have no treatment, infectious diseases are sky high, at historic levels, and yet the Left in America could not care less. Much like with Cuba, not even the United Nations trusts the “public health data” provided by Venezuela. Instead the Left fault those countries who have accepted these immigrants as employing discrimination and disregarding “equity” in their adopted homelands. It’s never enough for the Left. They lie effortlessly while death follows in their wake.
Americans will hopefully fight off Marxism in the USA. Given the lack of intelligence of most Americans today, and their embrace of Marxist-spouting politicians, it will likely take hitting rock bottom before the nation rises again. World history has taught us as such, for those few countries/empires that collapsed and rose again.
from the Lancet:
Venezuela’s public health crisis: a regional emergency
The economic crisis in Venezuela has eroded the country’s health-care infrastructure and threatened the public health
of its people. Shortages in medications, health supplies, interruptions of basic utilities at health-care facilities, and the
emigration of health-care workers have led to a progressive decline in the operational capacity of health care. The effect
of the crisis on public health has been difficult to quantify since the Venezuelan Ministry of Health stopped publishing
crucial public health statistics in 2016.
Page KR, et al. Venezuela’s public health crisis: a regional emergency. Lancet. 2019 Mar 23;393(10177):1254-1260.
From AIDS Review:
HIV, COVID-19, and civil society: Lessons from Venezuela’s humanitarian crisis
Venezuela has been experiencing a humanitarian emergency for much of the past decade, and its health system is widely recognized to be in a state of collapse. The political and economic crisis that gave rise to this situation has been accompanied by myriad human rights violations. With the national government’s response to HIV so severely weakened by the ongoing humanitarian emergency, Venezuelan civil society organizations and international allies have stepped in to fill the void. The three prongs of their agenda have been community-led service delivery, health system monitoring, and advocacy. Our long experience in the HIV field tells us that the Venezuelan HIV community’s capacity to respond to the collapse of the health system is not exceptional.
Nieves A, Safreed-Harmon K, Torres MA. HIV, COVID-19, and civil society: Lessons from Venezuela’s humanitarian crisis. AIDS Rev. 2020;22(3):148-150. doi: 10.24875/AIDSRev.20000055.
Well said!
” The New York Times pulitzer prize winner, Walter Duranty, is alive and well today.”
I suppose you mean that, in spirt, because he died before you were born.
Just more affirmation as to the deplorable state of our media/education industry.
Margaret Thatcher-“The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other peoples money.”
Why do you think the progressive and/or democratic socialists keep wanting to change the constitution? Because they need to have the coercive state behind them to make you do what you don’t want to do. So they can reward those that sit on their asses while they take away the hard earned money that you acquired.
Capitalism works by incentive. Socialism works by coercion.
In a capitalist state, with few exceptions, most people reside where they are based on their own decisions and their work or lack of it. But self reflection and admitting that you made bad decisions is anathema to so many of those same people. Far easier to blame ‘the system’ than yourself and to take from others what you never earned yourself.
GEB,
Well said.
The mere fact that recent high school and/or college graduates cannot comprehend this is what is most frightening to me. These addlepated young noggins will be in charge of this nation is short time and then we are on a rocket sled to hades.
very much on label for democrats. Honestly, its Humpty Dumpty, 24/7 with the left.
“When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.’
’The question is,’ said Alice, ‘whether you can make words mean so many different things.’
What do you call a medical treatment that does NOT prevent a viral infection, nor does it prevent the patient from spreading the virus? The left calls it a vaccine.
This is common Democrat gas lighting. Joe Biden has been blurting out, ‘Bidenomics are making the peoples lives better’ while the people know they have spent $10’s of thousands more for the same goods and services due to Bidenflation.
The American People will take Socialism, but they won’t take the label. I certainly proved it in the case of EPIC [End Poverty in California]. Running on the Socialist ticket I got 60,000 votes, and running on the slogan to ‘End Poverty in California’ I got 879,000. I think we simply have to recognize the fact that our enemies have succeeded in spreading the Big Lie. There is no use attacking it by a front attack, it is much better to out-flank them.
Upton Sinclair
So Sinclair did better when he lied ?
“Socialism is Simply Bargain Sales”
Sure. A bargain with the devil.
Sell your soul to the state. In return, you get cheap, rationed TP — after waiting in line for 2 hours.
Oh, and don’t mind those pesky mass executions, political “crimes,” pogroms, and forced starvations.
The American People will take Socialism, but they won’t take the label. I certainly proved it in the case of EPIC [End Poverty in California]. Running on the Socialist ticket I got 60,000 votes, and running on the slogan to ‘End Poverty in California’ I got 879,000. I think we simply have to recognize the fact that our enemies have succeeded in spreading the Big Lie. There is no use attacking it by a front attack, it is much better to out-flank them.
Upton Sinclair
It was renamed The Great Society. It has resulted in the confiscation of around $20 TRILLION from people who earned it so the politicians could redistribute it to clients in exchange for votes and make them wards of the state. Despite that enormous redistribution in the name of ending poverty, the poverty rate has declined maybe 2%.
Like the rest of the experiment in bureaucratic welfare statism, it has been a failure of catastrophic proportions.
Had that $20 TRILLION been reinvested in productive economic capacity there would be very little poverty today, no or little federal debt. Standards of living would be the envy of the rest of the world. Instead we are the laughingstock of the world. Pretending to be powerful while amassing TRILLIONS in debt every year to satisfy the greed of the corrupt electorate Democrats created.
The writer may be confused between price and cost. A government that controls the price of goods can set the price thereof below the per unit cost of production. But the difference will need to be made up by our “contributions” to government, voluntary or involuntary. For example, the Soviet Union kept the price of vodka low to mollify the populace. But as a result less capital was available for other industries.
The writer may be confused between….
Per Professor Turley the writer is a Guardian columnist. Nuf said.
There is also the fact that he isn’t even a functioning adult. He knows absolutely nothing about anything, other than peddling talking points for his masters in the Left MSM realm
Nwanevu is 29 years old as of 2022, he was born on November 1, 1993, in Woodbridge, Virginia, USA.
https://bio-pedia.com/Osita-Nwanevu/
What is the likelihood that he shares his wages with the poor, the homeless, fatherless children, the uninsured in his locale? As likely as Hunter Biden willingly supporting his offspring.
Frauds…all of them.
Lets take everything away from these so called writers, politicians, Great Reset crowd, Elites etc. who call for Gov’t ownership of everything and see how they like it. Let them live in their own village and socialist/Great Reset World, eating bugs etc. with no ownership of goods/housing, cares etc and see how they like it. They will be trying to escape in a week.
There were many “Utopian” societies in America in the 19th century. Most centered around religious sects who tried to cut themselves off from the rest of society to create their Utopia. They usually petered out after a few years. One of the longest lasting ones in Oneida, New York lasted around 20ish years.
Then the druggie, free love, hippy, New Age kooks tried forming communes in the ’60s and ’70s. They attracted other kooks like Charles Manson as well as the spoiled rotten children of wealthy, privileged, white elites. Those also mostly petered out.
Then, of course, there was the far left French Revolution that resulted in tens of thousands of heads being chopped off in Paris. The followers of Stalin and Mao seeking Utopia resulted in tens of millions of killings, starvations, and premature deaths.
That the left can not learn from history shows how utterly dangerous – and stupid – they really are.
So long as all people are free to choose to participate or not – I really do not care. And it is NOT socialism.
The french revolution was not a free choice of everyone anymore than what preceeded it. It was disinguishable from the aristocracy that preceded it only in who held power and how bloody was the excercise of that power.
So long as people are free to choose, better ideas will work and poorer ones will not. If working with others proves to be the better way to do things – so be it.
I will admit to not having read a great deal of Marx since grad school in the 70’s, but this take is novel and inane at the same time
We already have plenty of socialism for the rich- and free enterprise for the poor.
Socialism is someone else’s hard work, and earnings, that is distributed to people that don’t work and earn. Like children, that parents provide everything for them. No wonder young adults think socialism is great.
“Capitalism works better than it sounds, while socialism sounds better than it works.”
~ Richard M. Nixon
Here in the US, socialism is regulation.
A person has to spend months in training and thousands for that training, in order to cut peoples hair. That’s our little slice of socialism