Up@dawn 2.0

Monday, October 24, 2016

Socialism: Economic Idealism

H1

Socialism is a beautiful idea. Yet, not to the fault of the idea itself, it is completely unsustainable. Over the last 150 years the battle between capitalism and socialism has been raging violently. The reason socialism fails is not because economics is not on its side. The reason socialism fails is because it relies on men to overcome their greed and see the greater good of all as being more important than themselves.

On paper, Socialism runs smoothly, every man does his job, money goes where it should go, power is not abused. This is simply impossible in the real world. The shortcomings of man, whether it be their natural born survival instinct that leads them to greed, or simple corruption of power, will always cause socialism to fail. This not only illustrates a flaw in this political theory, but in the idea of Utilitarianism itself. Utilitarians may work for the pleasure of the whole, but that is not to say that everyone in the whole will work for the same end. There will always be a few who undermine the utopia with selfish and single-minded actions.


Capitalism is not a better social system in the sense that it provides a better life for the whole; it is better in the fact that it holds each person accountable for their own place in society. In a capitalist society, if a man is unsatisfied with his position in life it is his problem and his problem alone. He must personally work for the betterment of his position. In this, every single person is forced, not by conventional force, but by simply needing to survive, to work.  

8 comments:

  1. Perhaps you should consider the possibility of socialism in smaller states. When you said that the political ideology runs "smoothly on paper," I feel that you are confusing it with the similar ideology, communism, which has proven to be unsustainable and doesn't apply itself to various factors such as professionalism. If you are a fan of the concept of socialism, you should delve into Democratic Socialism, a political ideology that has the potentiality to be the perfect blend of capitalism and socialism.

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    1. (H3)Democratic Socialism works better, especially when balanced by other parties. On a small scale though still no dice. It has shown to be viable on a very small scale, such as the village level. Much larger than that though and even if you get the free rider problem, which leads to others.

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  2. I do not know a great depth on either of these topics, but you make them both seem extremely desirable. Yet, everything in the media makes them sound terrible and almost tyrannical. I wonder where the difference in you description and what the media uses is?

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    1. The media fears them because of leftover prejudices. We, as inherent Americans, hate tyranny and monarchy because of how we left England. And likewise, we hate socialism because it the humane version of communism which we hate because of the cold war. Those leftover prejudices combined with trying to claim we were the first democracy breeds the extreme nationalism we see embodied in our media.
      (H01)

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  3. The fact that capitalists has a self checking mechanism is good and has been successful as long as the people do not want to be ruled however I think that the societal America is leading more and more into a realm of wanting to be ruled by an individual.

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    1. (H3) I'm not so sure about that. Americans are generally very suspicious of the concentration of power in the long term.

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    2. With what proof do you think that America wants to be ruled? Capitalism is thriving right now and is what this country was based upon, which is the reason why America is one of the greatest countries in the world

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  4. Kaite Berry H0111:40 AM CST

    This was a really good explanation of the downfalls of these situations. Everyone is so quick to jump to conclusions and claim that any person with even the slightest of socialist views is a 'dirty communist,' as you can see with Bernie Sanders. All of these things has the potential to be good, but it is the fact of whether they are actually good or not that truly makes the difference. They all have their flaws and we will never have a perfect system. Even in our capitalist society, there are still those ride free with no effort given at any point in their life and it will continue to be that way. I just think it is up to us to find the perfect balance and ride that out.

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