Chapter Six: Socialism
The most prevalent antithesis to capitalism is, of course, socialism. While there exist many forms of socialism, economically, they all rely primarily on social ownership and control over capital production and management of the economy to the state, cooperative enterprises, or even a semblance of citizen ownership ( I say semblance because, let’s face it, once the state decides where ownership lies, it’s all over for you). The participating society (again, the semblance of voluntarism) produces capital/commodities based upon a need/use basis, and are granted value based upon the need – not the principle of producing for profit. Financial considerations are not attributed the same value as with capitalism, instead an accounting valuation measuring labor/time and physical characteristics relating to societal need/use is the final determination. Remember, of course, the two fundamental principles that must be considered for socialism to function as promised: “From each according to ability – to each according to need and to each according to contribution”.
Different core …show more content…
Attributed (by some) even to early Greek philosophers like Plato, who espoused the idea of the commonality of public ownership. Sociare and societas were early Latin and Roman terms used to indicate the need to combine – or – share, but the modern defining usage is believed to be first used by Henri de Saint-Simon (Claude Henri de Rouvroy, comte de Saint-Simon) in the late 18th century. Though this is not to be taken as his advocacy for the more modern form of “utopian socialism”, as later proponents of his works would have you believe. Henri did believe capitalism brought too much chaos and fluidity to the market and was responsible for creating societal class gaps. He argued the potential of science and technology could be better realized by a more communal spirit that offered more equal
The most prevalent antithesis to capitalism is, of course, socialism. While there exist many forms of socialism, economically, they all rely primarily on social ownership and control over capital production and management of the economy to the state, cooperative enterprises, or even a semblance of citizen ownership ( I say semblance because, let’s face it, once the state decides where ownership lies, it’s all over for you). The participating society (again, the semblance of voluntarism) produces capital/commodities based upon a need/use basis, and are granted value based upon the need – not the principle of producing for profit. Financial considerations are not attributed the same value as with capitalism, instead an accounting valuation measuring labor/time and physical characteristics relating to societal need/use is the final determination. Remember, of course, the two fundamental principles that must be considered for socialism to function as promised: “From each according to ability – to each according to need and to each according to contribution”.
Different core …show more content…
Attributed (by some) even to early Greek philosophers like Plato, who espoused the idea of the commonality of public ownership. Sociare and societas were early Latin and Roman terms used to indicate the need to combine – or – share, but the modern defining usage is believed to be first used by Henri de Saint-Simon (Claude Henri de Rouvroy, comte de Saint-Simon) in the late 18th century. Though this is not to be taken as his advocacy for the more modern form of “utopian socialism”, as later proponents of his works would have you believe. Henri did believe capitalism brought too much chaos and fluidity to the market and was responsible for creating societal class gaps. He argued the potential of science and technology could be better realized by a more communal spirit that offered more equal