WHAT IS SOCIALISM
Lately the word socialism and socialist have been plastered all across
the Internet and media. Claims that Obama, Clinton, and the democrats
in general, are "socialists" are all too common and show the political
ignorance in this country. So what is socialism?
Socialism is a system in which resources and the means of production
(mines, farms, factories, oil fields, utilities, etc) are socially owned
and managed by the workers. Who exactly is advocating for this
in the Democratic Party, or in America for that matter? Even Bernie
Sanders, self proclaimed democratic socialist, never speaks of social
ownership.
The powers that be want you to associate socialism with the USSR,
North Korea, and other oppressive dictatorships, which is a total lie.
The workers don't even have control over their lives in North Korea,
yet we are supposed to believe they somehow control the economy?
Workers in the USSR couldn't even form a union or chose their own
jobs, let alone freely speak or write opinions. Both of these examples
are oppressive dictatorships where the average person has / had no
rights whatsoever.
True socialism embraces democracy and freedom of expression;
each individual is equal in opportunity and legal rights, has control
over their workplace through the democratic process, and has control
over their lives. Unlike our current capitalistic system, everyone enjoys
the same rights and opportunities under socialism; it’s not dependent
on your wealth or social standing as it is now.
What if America were suddenly to embrace socialism? Well, tomorrow
you'd be able to vote for your bosses from supervisor to CEO. You'd
have an ownership stake in your company instead of being just a
worker. Goods and services would be much cheaper due to the fact
that profits, now used for shareholder dividends and executive bonuses,
would be invested back into the workforce, the company, and used to
reduce costs to customers. And finally, we'd all be working a lot less
while earning more money and enjoying more leisure time.
How you wonder?
Under a socialist system every able-bodied person would partake in
work, unlike our current economy that relies on an army of unemployed
to keep wages down and workers insecure. This means that jobs would
be shared amongst different people, which would allow us all to work less.
Well wouldn't that result in less pay for less hours worked? No, not exactly.
As explained before, profits would be shared among the workers and
company as a whole (not just the ownership classes as they are now).
This results in much more money to go around.
A CEO of a large company can make $20 million a year easily
(not to mention their stock options, dividends, and bonuses).
That same $20 million could be used to hire an additional 400
employees, each making $50,000 per year! Not too shabby. Under
socialism, all the money now used for executive bonuses, stock
buybacks, dividend payouts, compounded interest, and all the other
financial tricks used to enrich the wealthy, well all that money
would be going to people like us; the workers and consumers!
We need to stop letting the regressives define these political terms.
If you want to know more about socialism, read books written by
actual socialists! Upton Sinclair, Michael Parenti, Eugene Debs,
and even Einstein wrote books and essays on socialism, and how
it embraces freedom and equality. If you read pieces from these people,
you will quickly realize what you've been told about socialism, is nothing but lies!
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