Andrew Williams
Sep 1, 2018 · 1 min read

Nice try. Socialism is not social ownership and self ownership of the means of production. It’s where ‘government’ owns the means of production; not you, or anyone else.

To understand socialism, you need to learn the difference in economy types. There are free market economies, hybrid economies, and command economies. A free market economy has little to no government presence. A command economy is all or almost all total control of the economy by government. A hybrid is a mix. Most economies are a hybrid.

View the economic freedom index:

Countries like Singapore, Hong Kong, Ireland, United States, Denmark, Sweden, etc… These are all hybrid economies that lean closer to free market economies. This is also why they’re so successful.

Look at the other end; Cuba, Venezuela, North Korea. These are all command economies, little to no freedom at all. The government owns the means of production (socialism/communism). Does this sound ideal to you? No. It doesn’t.

You say socialism is a post capitalism idea. It’s only post capitalism because socialism requires a surplus to squander and that can’t be built under socialism. Capitalism brings surplus and prosperity, not socialism. If you want socialism to continue, you need a free market to fund it, just like the nordic countries. They aren’t successful because of socialism. They are successful in spite of it.

    Andrew Williams
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