Why is socialism bad?

Question

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In the end it seems most people think the word socialist is negative and few even understand it. It seems the most that do hate it with a passion. I gather that this is the view that the upper class favors as it keeps more money in their pocket, with no need to feel guilt for hoarding so much money in a world with people starving.
Here is my argument, how does capitalism help the poor? is it working? 95% of the wealth is in the hands of 5% of Americans... some say it is 80% in the top 10%.. Americans are one group of people..., some are smart enough to hire others to work for them. They make their profits on the backs of those people, do they deserve to keep every bit of it?Should they contribute to the good of the group?
The single core difference is, do we let selfishness of the wealthy control the market or do we let govt have control which usually turns into corruption,

We cant trust the govt to be for the people, that is the reason we like small govt. Capitalism allows the rich to control everything and as most wealthy people are not pure and noble people, then it is a given that capitalism is not best for the people. I say let the govt have control and the people have to monitor the govt for corruption... is this true

Most of these answers are propagandized brainwashing, People READ AND STOP WATCHING FOX.......

MAYBE I SHOULD SAY IT SIMPLER THESE... ANSWERS ARE QUOTES FROM FOX NEWS.. AND THE LIKE..... WITH NO THOUGHT PUT INTO THEM,,,

Answer 1

in theory NO...however we are dealing with human beings and the human condition....there are many aspects of socialism that can be useful to equalize the differences between the haves and the have nots..........however until we take back the government...IE start acting locally to effect a real change in DC well then we are going to see seniors suffer and children suffer...and people who are just able to be in the middle...or lower middle classes...{which are quickly vanishing} due to the fact that we have allowed the balance of power in this country get out of control....you made some good points...peace

Answer 2

Socialism Bad

Answer 3

Maybe the people supporting this idea of socialism that has been tested and proven to fail time and time again are 2Young2RememberTheWall. It works in no way, shape or form; not even a little bit.. A little leads to a little more and then more and more, it feeds off itself and spreads like wildfire. Next thing a nation knows its knee deep in isht and bankrupt and the ones that manifest it (ei. those governments) are the ones that make it seem as though they are so caring but ruin the lives of the people they have promised so much to. When people are in an economic bind, they are quick to give up their liberties for a false sense of security. When there is a promise to create economic equality, those promising it are essentially asking people to surrender their liberties because the only way to achieve such equality is under totalitarian rule, leading to an incentive-stripped status quo and a wealthy political elite. Maybe we have recently gotten a taste from what we ve experience over the past few decades and there are some yearning for more... Let s be smart and not go down that rabbit hole trap here. We are in serious need of a restoration of core principles (limited gov t & the free market) in the US, not a transformation... I will NOT take political advise from anyone under the age of 30, bottom line..

Answer 4

Most of these people probably received their definition of socialism from fox news ad have read ZERO literature on it. Most of the people who answered probably don't realize that the majority of developed nations are socialist and report much high qualities of life and preform better on global education exams than the US. Sigh Communist style socialism from the 50's Russia obviously doesn't work. But I wish you people would get real. I doubt any advocate of socialism in the 21st century has tried to advocate that. The world would be such a better place if people just read or conversed about something before drawing such ignorant conclusions. P.s. To anyone who thinks the economic system is in trouble do to socialist policies you are idiots. This is a direct result of capitalism strangling its self. Banks and investors began to take larger risks thinking of short term rewards and this is what happened. And if you are going to say Obama is socialist for the bail out, then Bush is socialist for the original 7billion+ in economic relief he gave to banks . I wish that all the people who lived in a country of pure capitalism would imagine their futures for a moment. It would be like feudal times. Pure capitalism eventually leads to the world being owned by a few ultra conglomorates, or maybe even one. No monopoly laws would insure that. Thats why the EU fined the pants off Intel. (I think it was tooo heavy a fine) to prove that point. Intel had the money to pay vendors to buy less of or none of the product of their major comp AMD. And following the mindset of capitalists, the vendors said SURE, thus AMD's market share drastically decreased and they were powerless to do anything about it. Intel recruited better researchers, and have better equipment so AMD cant try to beat them on the techno level either. This is the result of uninterrupted capitalism. Your country would either get fed up with a bad system and revolt, or give in and instead of having 7 continents on the globe we would have, Microsoft, Sony, Goldman-Sachs, Goya, Absa, Outback Inc.The Antarctic conglomorate. Capitalsim has never been attempted in its purest form because politicians know that it CANT WORK. Thats why there has always been some government intervention, it was either that or revolution. Because our constitution encourages us to overthrow a government that doesnt work. So if you keep the plebes complacent with a few government programs so be it

Answer 5

I agree with Che Ghandi and others. Socialism is a wonderful concept in theory. In this world, we would all get along; we would agree on every issue; when we disagree, we would come to a quick resolution. However, none of this is a reality. A middle ground between capitalism and socialism is need, but I believe that it would need to lean towards capitalism. I hold this idea because money needs to circulate within the economy for it to function well, and without rich corporations there are no jobs and without jobs people have no money to spend. That being said, I do not believe that full blown capitalism is healthy for an economy either because full blown capitalism leads to an unhealthy income equality between the common man and the elite and greed within the elite.

Answer 6

When I was studying in Spain I heard that it has not been proven yet that socialism would lead to autocracy. However, many people hate and are afraid of it because socialism can permit bureaucrats to assure strong power to control a country.
The basic idea is that one makes economic activities for altruistic reasons and with philanthropy, so that disparity isn't inherited from generations to generations within a group like a family, and the equality of opportunities at birth is ensured.

Answer 7

There are plenty of countries in modern times that have a more socialist government. As another comment suggested move to that country and enjoy their social experiment. If you are an American citizen I purpose this, unless your ancestory came to this country as slaves or your bloodline is completely Native American, any other individuals ancestory came to this country as a legal or illegaly for the sole purpose of having the opportunity to make a new life for themselves and their families in most cases not expecting any form of assistance from anyone, except possibly their church or cultural communities. I offer that you take on that challenge and create your Utopia in a country, as I mentioned before, that has a government that is better responsive to socialist ideologies. The United States is a unique form of government never before seen in this world.

Answer 8

Redflite: USSR was communist, which means that the government owns everything and distributes it to the people. N. Korea if a dictatorship, masked as communism. Neither is socialistic in nature.

sgreger1: the economy of many socialist countries far exceeds our own. Netherlands, for example.

Karina B: The government owns nothing in true socialism. TRUE socialism is where the people own everything, and it is equally shared among them. You're talking about communism when you say the government owns everything.

Answer 9

It's not bad. It's a more fair system then what we have here but I don't think we'll ever have it here because of the selfish right wingers in this country .

Answer 10

What most other answers fail to recognize is that not everybody becomes rich from hard work. In fact, many inherit ridiculous sums of money through no effort of their own, which gives them more of a head start in life. why should someone (like many politicians) who receive more adequate education and prospects benefit in a capitalist society? While socialism is far from ideal and not practical, it has many positive aspects which capitalism does not, like inheritance.

Answer 11

I think that there is some fault and some worth in all of it, and in fact I see that as the true way America almost is now. I do see that there are a few with quite a few bucks and a few with quite a few, but on the whole it is not in the education we get it is in the real life training that we get in these things this is enculturated into us. How to change this I am not sure, what is the idea of freetrade about, how would that work? What was America really like when if first began? What about Australia? You need to look at all the aspects and benefits of poverty to the rich and poor alike and all the disadvantages too. I am not sure how to fix it? It is life now and won't change until those in control change how they are controlling this country. We think we are free and we are one of the freest countries in the world in many ways, but there are actually many ways that we are all slaves if we just look at it.