Lefters and righters.. what is socialism as opposed to communism, and why is there abject fear of either ?

Question

In the United States we all grow up hearing that we're a Democracy ..but we are not.. we are a federal republic.. so if we on the whole don't have a handle on our own form of governance, how can have an opinion about something we don't understand ?

No drooling please... I am genuinely curious to see if anyone knows the difference?

Answer 1

Socialism is liberal - where everyone would share the benefits of industrialization.
Communism is conservative - a system by which the state controls the means of production and the distribution and consumption of industrial products.

Socialism is an economic system while communism is a political system

The US is a republic, but our leaders are democratically elected.

Answer 2

Actually the US is a representative republic, which is technically not a classic Athenian democracy. But then could you imagine the entire voting population of the US participating in debates on the issues and voting on every issue? Talk about big government.

Socialism and Communism are matters of degrees in my humble opinion. Communism is the extreme, in which all resources are supposed to be distributed equally, regardless of individual contribution. Socialism is a robin hood style redirection of the resources of the successful to the non-successful. The problem with both is that they breed apathy and sloth, not to mention the corruption and waste which seems to plague it.

On of the primary motivators we have is the survival motivator. Take a look around, everything you see around you was invented by someone to fill a need, and a result that person was greatly rewarded. What if there was no incentive to improve oneself? No incentive to put in an extra effort? What if people got the same reward for doing nothing as they do for working extremely hard?

In my opinion that is why the communist regimes are as oppressive as they are. Democracies advance with the carrot on the stick, communist regimes have no more carrot so it becomes all stick.

There is TONS more to it, you could write a book about it, and many have.

Answer 3

Communism is a branch in the tree of the socialist movement.
I'm left, I don't believe in Communism or socialism, just because while no one should be hungry or homeless, the people who work hard deserved to be better off, plus greed is human nature, and absolute power corrupts absolutely, so communisms turn into fascism quite quickly, just look at Cuba, and North Korea, which are truely fascist now.

Answer 4

The way I understand it is Socialism - the state provides for the people. communism - The state owns everything and the people provide for the state. No abject fear, just prefer what I have now.

Answer 5

Under socialism private enterprise, banking, wages, prices, etc. are all strictly controlled by the government.

Under communism the government owns everything (including your children), controls the money supply, and in short establishes a culture that does not allow individualism instead enforcing a communal ethos.

Fear them? Yes, both are diametrically opposed to innovation, invention and individualism and such absolute power leads to corruption that abrogates the very system it pretends to establish.

Answer 6

Socialism was intended to reshuffle the nations wealth by giving attention and addressing its defined weaknesses in its society. Northern European countries, Canada are examples of democracys whose nations practice mixed economics. Early social reformers and proponents tried to blunt the blood sport of pure capitalistism as winner takall as a generator of its large economy. The arguement to assist and support societies members raised the importance of persons previously unheard, unseen, disenfranchised, homeless, etc,etc.
In the 20th century political parties and govts across the West adopted their own versions or degree of government protections for its peoples health, safety, education, information etc etc. Socialism operates with and alongside traditional capital economies.

Communism has similiar objectives but at the extreme and has extensive rules that function with much less focus on individual rights. 'Big Picture' 5 year plans made by central decision-makers and bureaucratic planning for all decisions affecting the collective such as the allocation of nationalized resourses including its peoples lives. There are no capitalists in a communist system.

Interestingly, business and mega-corporate interests have lobbied for similiar attention borrowing the 'welfare' aspect of both systems to argue for tax credits, legislation and other special interest govt support.

Answer 7

Given the fact that George Orwell was a socialist, and that he said the communism is "a good idea that will never work," I suppose I would say that:

Socialism -- the ideal portrait of a society as described by "Old Major" in Orwell's "Animal Farm."
Communism -- the horrible reality of what happened on "Manor Farm" when "Napoleon" took over.

Answer 8

There is not alot of diff between the two, basically the idea is that all are equal, from top to bottom. With this type of idea, we all work our share and we all have the same benefit, you have a house, land, car, wife, kids, all is paid for. everything is OK. The problem is that in reality, humans have no desire for equality, someone has to be on top, and that someone will get greedy, that greed will eventually destroy the process. Plus if all things are equal, why should i have to work harder for my bread, its paid for, so i can slouch and be lazy and i still get my bread. While you work hard and kill yourself for your bread i will do nothing. In our country, to small point you get what you work for, but you can see that this is turning to a socialist country because everyone feels they are entitles to their share, with welfare, SSI, people feel this is a privilege and demand their fare share, work or not.

Answer 9

Boy are these people uneducated, I will tell you how to find out, read!

Answer 10

socialism and communism are pretty much the same thing dude.