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I would've thought that government as a servant is prevalent under capitalism (the government is supposed to only provide services in the forms of courts, polic

I would've thought that government as a servant is prevalent under capitalism (the government is supposed to only provide services in the forms of courts, policing, defense, some infrastructure, some schooling). Whereas under socialism the government is like a godfather and is supposed to take care of you from cradle to grave, giving you tasks to do, providing you with entertainment, not asking you but telling you what to do and how to live, with an implicit guarantee that it would give everyone a decent life. Companies are not empires - they are just free people associating with each other on their own terms to create something.

akuji1993 6y ago
You mistake socialism with authoritarian socialism. Which is one form of it and that can be on a scale, too. Socialism does not inherently forbid the use of a free market, just as capitalism doesn't mean there is a free market available. Those things are two different characteristics of an economic system.
- agent008t 6y ago
  The socialism you speak of still involves the government taking from some and giving to others, and many people depending on the government to provide them with a decent life. The government is certainly seen as a "godfather", a source of livelihood, rather than as a public servant - a mere provider of certain services.
  - akuji1993 6y ago
    I'll agree to that. My issue is with this: > telling you what to do and how to live, with an implicit guarantee that it would give everyone a decent life. Why should I need to tell you what to do and how to live? There's gonna be things everyone will have to do from time to time (like cleaning streets, trash drives, maybe canal work, but most of those you can address by making the reward for doing such jobs higher than the average desk job), but other than that, you will have to work less and have more free time in which you will be free to do whatever you want. I'd argue that our current system forces you way more to do certain things than a socialist system would. If you are poor, you need to work service jobs or hard manual labor, otherwise you die. The system literally forces you to work, otherwise you will not be caught by any social safety net. That's why leftists tend to talk about "wage slaves", because at the end of the day, you can either become homeless and sick, or work.

akuji1993 6y ago

You mistake socialism with authoritarian socialism. Which is one form of it and that can be on a scale, too. Socialism does not inherently forbid the use of a free market, just as capitalism doesn't mean there is a free market available. Those things are two different characteristics of an economic system.

agent008t 6y ago
The socialism you speak of still involves the government taking from some and giving to others, and many people depending on the government to provide them with a decent life. The government is certainly seen as a "godfather", a source of livelihood, rather than as a public servant - a mere provider of certain services.
- akuji1993 6y ago
  I'll agree to that. My issue is with this: > telling you what to do and how to live, with an implicit guarantee that it would give everyone a decent life. Why should I need to tell you what to do and how to live? There's gonna be things everyone will have to do from time to time (like cleaning streets, trash drives, maybe canal work, but most of those you can address by making the reward for doing such jobs higher than the average desk job), but other than that, you will have to work less and have more free time in which you will be free to do whatever you want. I'd argue that our current system forces you way more to do certain things than a socialist system would. If you are poor, you need to work service jobs or hard manual labor, otherwise you die. The system literally forces you to work, otherwise you will not be caught by any social safety net. That's why leftists tend to talk about "wage slaves", because at the end of the day, you can either become homeless and sick, or work.