My big issue with socialism is more about the implementation. I’m not sure there is a way of enforcing socialism that isn’t antithetical to the goal of socialism- a more even distribution of power (which we quantify as wealth in a capitalist society).
In general, I don’t think there are any stable economic systems that don’t decay into feudalism when abused. At least for the economic systems we’ve come up with so far. The best one I know of is the gift economy, but that requires people to not expect something in return, because otherwise it could be reduced down to capitalism.
In short, all the economic systems so far, despite their best intentions, reinforce inequality.
It’s always about the implementation. No one I know would consciously decide that everyone should be poor or we should all pick someone to stomp on. But in older communities like Native American tribes, if you didn’t pull your weight you were left behind. “If a man doesn’t work neither shall he eat.” There are exceptions, but you and I are always going to disagree about those exceptions. How many chances does a person get? What about people who abuse the system? Whoever enforces this has an agenda, not to say capitalism doesn’t, but to assume that socialism as an implementation will be devoid of discrimination is utter nonsense.
I don’t think native tribes are the architects we should look to for modern society. Maybe there is something to learn from them but only in an anecdotal sense.
My big issue with socialism is more about the implementation. I’m not sure there is a way of enforcing socialism that isn’t antithetical to the goal of socialism- a more even distribution of power (which we quantify as wealth in a capitalist society).
In general, I don’t think there are any stable economic systems that don’t decay into feudalism when abused. At least for the economic systems we’ve come up with so far. The best one I know of is the gift economy, but that requires people to not expect something in return, because otherwise it could be reduced down to capitalism.
In short, all the economic systems so far, despite their best intentions, reinforce inequality.
It’s always about the implementation. No one I know would consciously decide that everyone should be poor or we should all pick someone to stomp on. But in older communities like Native American tribes, if you didn’t pull your weight you were left behind. “If a man doesn’t work neither shall he eat.” There are exceptions, but you and I are always going to disagree about those exceptions. How many chances does a person get? What about people who abuse the system? Whoever enforces this has an agenda, not to say capitalism doesn’t, but to assume that socialism as an implementation will be devoid of discrimination is utter nonsense.
I don’t think native tribes are the architects we should look to for modern society. Maybe there is something to learn from them but only in an anecdotal sense.
I agree, but what is human history but chronicled anecdotes?
Data and data analytics?