Thread: Why Socialism Doesn't Work

Originally Posted by Voldmer

Threads can be star-rated?

Yeah. I don't really see what it's worth because the topic of the thread has a lot to do with its value and if the discussion on it sucks, I try to make it better. It seems like it's mostly a way for cowards to have their fits and run away.

Originally Posted by sivason

Brilliant go getters will find it worth there time to get a doctorate if it means earning $85,000 (as opposed to $20,000 with out it), despite the fact that with out taxation it would be between $120K and $180K. Those types may bitch that it is not fair, but they will not choose to forgo using their talents and work fast food instead. Fast food may be harder work in many ways.

Then we have the lazy drunk, who will not change even if we take his food and shelter away. He will just beg and steal, if he is that type. However, giving him access to free mental health medications, is not ever going to make him less likely to seek work.



It sounds more like the video is describing communism, which is very different from socialism.

The brilliant go getters are much more likely to become doctors if they are not taxed too much. If we had equal distribution of wealth, almost nobody would want to be a doctor. Why do that when you can be a lifeguard or answer a phone and make the same amount of money? That is the extreme case. The less extreme cases reduce the tendency to be lazy as the taxation levels go down in the heirarchy, but somebody making $20,000 a year would be much more likely to become a doctor if he can take home $170,000 than if he can take home just $85,000.

Communism and socialism have different definitions, but in practice, the attempts to make communism and pure socialism happen result in the same reality. The government controls everything and gives people what it decides to give them. The governments will have different ways of describing and labeling what they are doing, but it's the same thing. That is why the Soviet Union is referred to as communist and also socialist. It was the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, but it was controlled by the Communist Party. Really, it was just a totalitarian Hell hole where people lacked incentive to work hard, business absolutely sucked, and the government collapsed because the economy was absolutely pitiful.