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"Socialism", in simplest terms, means control of the "means of production" by workers or the general public, as opposed to a more limited group of owners. Note
by camccann 17y ago
"Socialism", in simplest terms, means control of the "means of production" by workers or the general public, as opposed to a more limited group of owners.
Note that an otherwise unrestrained free market economy wherein all corporations are required to be employee-owned would, by this definition, be completely socialist.
Soviet-style centralized command economies can be technically called socialist in that the state, as representative of the general public, owns everything; this clearly grossly violates the idea in spirit as a small group of powerful people again end up controlling everything (and typically doing so very poorly).
The term "socialism", like "capitalism", describes a huge range of possible ideas and implementations, and to describe one or the other as broadly good or bad is symptomatic of egregiously lazy thinking.
- Semiapies 17y ago"Science", in simple terms, is an effort to explain the natural world. Note that creationist propaganda would, by this definition, be completely scientific. This, of course, is because I've chosen an absurd definition of science, not because of lazy thinking of the part of evolutionary biologists.
- camccann 17y agoOkay, you missed my point completely, but never mind. Arguments about terms with lots of emotional content but very ambiguous meanings tend to look more like people cheering for their local sports team more than like a meaningful discussion.
- Semiapies 17y agoArguments about subjects involving real depth tend to be confusing when people misuse the terminology.
- camccann 17y agoI question the assumption that there is, in fact, any depth involved in arguments over the merits of socialism-in-general. Or most discussions of economic systems, for that matter.