Has socialism hindered Great Britain's Creative Spirit?

Question

Before Britain became sociolistic, she had great train, boat, car, and plane industries that were leaders in the world. The pound dominated international markets, and the UK was awash with commercial activity, suddenly it stopped when socialism arrived. Has socialism held back the Industrious and creative sectoters of this once dominating country?

Answer 1

When did Socialism arrive in Great Britain? There hasn't been a Socialist Government here for nearly 30 years. Our great industries - coal, steel, shipbuilding etc., in fact finally collapsed under the right wing government of Margaret Thatcher. The decline which had been taking place before that was nothing to do with Socialism, but with the failure of entrepreneurship on the part of the management classes who were more concerned with big lunches and and playing golf afterwards than investing in R&D. Also, you must remember that we are a small country with a small home market. The economies of scale in things like the car industry were not available as they were to the American manufacturers with a vast home market. Our heavy industries were very badly hit by the effects of World War 2 and it is probably fair to say they never recovered. Although a Socialist government was elected immediately post-war and nationalised things like the railways, cola and steel and created our National Health Service (you should give such a try in the USA - why should the medical care you receive depend on the depth of your pocket?), I reckon that did no really change the way things went.

And don't forget that now the £ is stronger against the once mighty $ than it has ever been. And hasn't IBM been sold to the Chinese?

Answer 2

Almost every other developed country in the world runs under a system that is at least partialially socialized. It is seen as a bad thing in the US because after World War II, feeling threatened by the growing power of the USSR, the United States launched a massive propaganda campaign against them, their leaders, and the idealogy that the country was founded on. Of course, once Lenin died and Stalin took over, the country broke greatly, if not completely from the Marxist plan and that made it even easier for the US to slander the good name of Marx. Socialism allows the people to have direct control over their government without have a rich ruling class. The government control over the basic industries prevents misuse while being able to regulate them in a reasonable manner. Health care and education are both free to everyone. And control of all of this rests with the people. The confusion in the US was, thanks to the propaganda, Socialism, and the private-propertyless extreme Communism, have been taken to mean a Stalinist regime, where the power was taken away from the workers party and given to a crony Bureaucracy. Basically, to sum it up in one sentence: Socialism is considered a bad thing because people don't know what they're talking about