Socialism has become a topic of many more conversations since the 2008 election and record $700 billion government “bailout.” Here are a few of the false impressions people may have and what true socialism means.
Revolutionary
Socialism is a revolutionary philosophy. It calls for a change in the way that society views itself. Socialism is a revolutionary ideal; to make every person equal, no matter what race, gender, religion, nationality, or anything else that separates people.
Open Borders
Socialism believes in the removal of all borders between countries. Only in a truly free world can there be no need to restrict people to the countries that they happened to be born in. Contrary to the fear that people would pour across the border from Mexico into the United States if allowed, the living conditions in Mexico would be raised to that of anyone living within the United States. If all people in Mexico had the same economic opportunities as those living to the north, there would be no need to flee their own country.
Violence
In order for a socialist revolution to be successful, acts of violence occur. But what types of violence? Capitalism by its nature is a violent system. Any time a citizen is detained by the police or an employee is refused a necessary break, that is a violent action. In a capitalist society we allow the state to use violence against us, the citizens, mostly in the form of the police and jails. The military is another tool of violence except it is used to enforce a capitalist agenda upon other countries.
Private Ownership
The concept of private ownership certainly would not go away. A socialist society does not mean you would be required to share your jeans or music collection with your neighbor. That is not the type of public ownership socialism is advocating.
However, privately owned businesses and land that all people use, such as hospitals, colleges and factories, would be open to everyone. Health care would be free and on-demand. Every college would be open to all who applied and it would also be free. The factories would become run by the people who labor within them. Restaurants would offer free meals to all.
Re-distribution of Wealth
There would be a redistribution of the wealth. Are socialists trying to take everything from the richest and give it to the poor? Not exactly. The need to hoard money would not be necessary. Or another way to imagine it is this; instead of millionaires making up less than one percent of the country, everyone in the entire world would be millionaires!
Basic Human Needs
What constitutes a person’s basic human needs? Certainly not just food, shelter and clothing. Love and artistic expression are absolutely basic human needs. Health care and an education are also basic human needs.
Welfare State
One point often brought up is how people would be motivated to work. There are always going to be jobs that people do not want to do. Cleaning restrooms or washing dishes are two examples. Maybe not initially, but in time, freeing up the laborer to figure out the best way to automate the process is one possibility. Technology would play a much larger role; possibly a self-cleaning toilet or floor scrubbing robots.
What would motivate someone to work? It would be for the greater good of all, including their own family. Instead of labor intensive remedial tasks people would be using their minds and skills.
In response to the “welfare state” argument one would have to agree that this form of society is much more attractive than what is available now. Instead of working two jobs in order to afford health care, a person who had that basic need met and would then be able to spend the time learning, might be the one who has the knowledge to cure cancer. We would not know each individual’s true potential in this case if not for a “welfare state.”
The exact form of a future socialist society is not entirely clear. Because socialism is a true democracy, a lot of the “nuts and bolts” would need to be figured out at different levels--within the home, locally, nationally and worldwide.
References
Some topics were taken from discussions during the 2008 Northeast Socialist Conference, Columbia University, Nov. 15-16.
The International Socialist Organization, "What We Stand For"
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