What is the Appeal of Socialism?

I've seen a number of discussions on socialism on this site, and I am always left with a feeling that many of the poeple who come out accusing it of being the product of the anti-Christ have no idea of what socialism is, but simply swallow whole the Capitalist anti-socialism proaganda lines. Wiki: "Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership and control of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy, and a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises, common ownership, direct public ownership or autonomous state enterprises. There are many variations of socialism and as such there is no single definition encapsulating all of socialism. They differ in the type of social ownership they advocate, the degree to which they rely on markets versus planning, how management is to be organized within economic enterprises, and the role of the state in constructing socialism." Note: Socialism is NOT Communism, but is merely a possible step on the way to Communism, which step is often not taken, as seen in the various social democracies around the place. As a very simplistic way of putting it, once the profit motive becomes involved, the common weal becomes fair game, and the inevitable result is inequity, injustice, greed, and corruption. The Profit motive creates the obscenity of massive individual wealth alongside homelessness and poverty, with a huge class of endemically underfunded battlers. It never fails to amaze me how many people seem to uncritically swallow the myth that anyone can succeed with hard work and become wealthy in the face of so much evidence to the contrary that only a tiny minority can do so because there is a finite amount of wealth to go around. Socialism doesn't, can't, and probably shouldn't make everybody equal, because patently everyone is not equal, but it does make it possible for almost everyone to have an adequate slice of the pie. Even then, there will be some who get more than their share, and some who get less, but the difference between the two points is miniscule compared to what happens under free-form Capitalism. When blended with a democratic political system, it is the best of both worlds. Lash

I cannot explain why, except that they are swallowing a lot of propaganda and outright lies told to them by socialists in high places - people they should be able to trust. Universities have more professors that lean to the left than to the right and even the education of our grade school kids is biased. The only other explanation (and some people will think I'm nuts) is that the devil is trying to make something that God created into something bad. When Christianity first began to spread, the newly converted had "all things in common" so that those who had goods and land sold it and they all lived off of it. That was good because it was done in love toward each other. Now, evil wants to copy that, but there is no love or care in it. It's only greed and selfishness of the top few who see people as commodities to be bought and sold and used. Inhuman, at the very best. On an individual level, socialism takes away everything that makes one's life uniquely its own. What people don't realize is that it's not just "rob from the rich and give to the poor," it's "we will make all your decisions for you, whether you like them or not." Too many times, people swallow the wrong propaganda and follow the wrong people and couldn't even tell you why.

Socialism and Capitalism are just different systems. Each has its good points and each has its serious flaws. We should be learning from each other and adapting our systems to make them better instead of demonizing, fearmongering and knitpicking.

If the policies of 1920 Sweden is to be used as an argument against the form of government in Sweden today fairness dictates that a look should be taken as to what was going on in the United State at that time. https://people.creighton.edu/~idc24708/Genes/Eugenics/History%20of%20Eugenics.htm

The appeal of socialism? For the people instituting it, control. Control of production. Control of the money. Control of the public. For the people living under it, fairness. A sense that they're worthy of just as much as anyone else just for the happenstance of being alive. Every other ill or failure or success or whatever under the banner of socialism doesn't matter much to me. I live in the USA and we have enough trouble with progressive policies. I cringe at the thought of outright socialism. I don't understand the way some Americans view it, however. People in favor of government control act as if just because we have iPads and HD TV now that corruption and bad, evil, naughty, no good, fraudulent government is somehow a thing of the past. Just as it's human nature to want a lot more for a lot less, it's also human nature to want to be in charge of things - to be in charge of people! So on the political end, I can most certainly see the appeal. I mean, you have a politician, any politician, out there preaching about taking things out of government's hands and letting actual people decide their own fate, that has to chap the hind quarters of someone who's sitting there thinking, "But I really wanted to be in charge! " So then we get all the "throw grandma off the cliff," "you want poor people to die," "you're racist," and all the other nonsense. Anything challenging their power is met fast and hard with spin and disdain. And we're talking politicians in a system that is still mostly capitalistic! Pete have mercy - I'd hate to see how things would go if we were actually socialist! We're talking assassinations and steps toward civil war most likely. And I really don't think I'm being hyperbolic here. The lengths people go to now so that progressives have the power to institute quasi-socialistic policies (see union thugs, OWS thugs, etc); it would be exponentially more brutal if socialism was already installed and then someone tried to stop it. Government and its proponents would be able to get away with murder, literally, because a large portion of Americans would be happy with their situation. Sure, unemployment would probably be 30%. We'd have about 40 trillion in debt. Half the country would be subsidized. Education would go from 700 billion to 3 trillion annually. Tax rates on earners would explode. But America's ordinary class en masse voting bloc would most likely more than appreciate government control and redistribution. Freedom and liberty means that you might fall on your face. How appealing is that when you've been raised living on a cloud of marshmallows with people placating your feelings and ensuring that you'll never fail? A lot of these schmucks out in the street today banging the socialism drum have never had to compete for anything in their lives, not even midget football or little league baseball. They don't know anything but that their feelings get placating because they're the bestest people on the face of this earth, by golly. Or else mommy wouldn't have said so! As "progressive" as these I-want-socialism schmucks pretend to be, they're pretty much reverting back to the teat and insisting someone else take care of them. We need more people willing to grind in America. We need fewer people so willing to rely on government. But, of course, America has been training the entitlement culture for decades now. The chickens are coming home to roost, and with PETA out there, we can't even kill 'em and eat 'em!

Wow! Did you "stir the pot" with this discussion! The problem is there are too many people who are just sheep. They follow because they can't lead. They follow because they aren't smart enough to look at the full picture. You based your opinion on good research, a level head and just how high is your IQ? Socialism is the last thing we need! We left socialism behind and fought against it from the very beginning. Without our rights; to bear arms and freedom of speech we would never have won the Revolutionary War! Of course capitalism has it's warts, but it's as close to freedom as any government can be. Great discussion by the way! When someone makes a careless decision I normally ask what they based that decision on. Most people can't answer my question with a well thought out answer. So they based their decision on little, or no information? My sister, my nephew and all three of my son's do this! Ya, it drives me nuts! How anyone can base their opinion on just what's on the news, or just because someone else said it's true is beyond me! I do my best to ignore ignorance but..... My mother-in-law is not a great fan of mine because she does this to! I just can't stand by and hear it without telling her the truth! Thanks for a lovely morning! Great "kick-start" for my day! Take care.

wow! this is a very great a detailed post. you did your research. i didn't realize that there is a growing trend toward socialism. i thought that was illegal in this country, or at least dangerous to be a part of anything like that. i don't know what the answer is between anarchy and socialism. maybe the kind of government the founders intended was for a much smaller population at the time. the values are different in the people and the people who are in government. if you remember the founding fathers left the constitution broad enough so that politician's can change their view of democracy. they may have even forseen the changes and wanted things to go the way they are going. just speculating. i am not in to politics, so i hope i made some sense.

In the past ten years I've become convinced that the country will eventually become socialist. I think that because as a country we have become complacent sheep, unwilling to fight for anything that doesn't affect us on a personal level. As long as we have our televisions, DVDs and other entertainment and a roof under which to enjoy them we don't care what the government does. And if half the country is receiving some kind of entitlement, what's it to us? It's the government's money, after all, not ours. That's what they think because they are too lazy to educated themselves and realize that it's THEIR money and the government has nothing that the people don't give it. So this laziness and complacency means that the government can slowly move towards socialism or any other form of government. The people think that everyone having the same things is good because everyone will be taken care of--the people want to be taken care of so they don't have to think about anything outside of their own little bubbles. After socialism is established and the people begin to lose their luxuries they will notice that they've lost their freedom. Then they'll start to realize what they've let happen but it will be too late. In short, socialism can exist because people are lazy and not willing to take care of themselves. They want to be taken care of, like children. Only they forget to total authority necessary to control them that they resented as children.