Socialism Revisited

[Kriminal99]

I have seen a lot of straw man versions of socialism throughout my college career and beyond. There is ann rynd and similar authors who write books that mimic some socialist ideast but misrepresent them more. Of course this is understandable since Communism itself is a poor man's version of a socialist enviornment and yet seems to be more prevelant. So I figured I would present a few socialist ideals here that are similar to what you might have seen in a story like brave new world, but in a more objective light.

 

How equal wages are a part of socialism

First of all democratic socialism is not supposed to be something that was forced on a population like it is with communism. In fact it is best realized through a capitolist economy. Socialism is the drive to eliminate market failure in a free market economy. Doing so completely in the labour market would result in equal wages among all workers. Of course this is an unattainable goal. But at the same time we can go much farther in that direction than we are now - many believe that there are many institutions now in the US that PROMOTE market failure such that the people in charge of these institutions can benefit at the expense of others.

 

A few examples: In war time it takes 2 years to train a doctor. In peace time it takes 8, and the result is usually someone who plugs symptoms into a (drug supplier supplied) pda in order to determine which drug to prescribe. Is this institution an assurance of quality, or an arbitrary reduction in labour supply and elimination of opposing approaches to medicine? Medical schooling revolves not around a wholistic understanding of the human body, but rather around understanding physical differences amoung people with various deseases and how drugs can be used to alter these physical differences.

 

Privatizing secondary education would undermine any institutions which depend on pressuring people to accept a way of thinking that they would not otherwise in order to achieve ulterior motives. It would also give economic incentive to improve teaching methods, perhaps placing understanding of more complex subjects in the hadns of people would not have otherwise been able to due to different learning method affinities, motivations, or even less mental ability.

 

Another example is the carpentry restrictions in Florida. I know someone that has been a roofer for 40 years, with many satisfied customers. This person went to Florida as an emergency worker after the major hurricanes and helped to rebuild. But upon moving to Florida, he was banned from his profession. He was told he had to take $10,000 worth and many of schooling including an apprenticeship. Apparently the local construction corporations had a hand in politics. The result is the labour supply is arbitrarily reduced. The united states is full of such examples.

 

A socialist enviornment is the limit of a free market economy as market failure approaches 0. A limit that the socialist believes we have a moral obligation to always approach.

 

Non exclusive relationships

 

The idea here is that jealousy is an result of competition and insecurity. People who have a better understanding of their enviornment are less likely to have as much insecurity. In a well developed social enviornment deception and straw man arguments designed to make potential competition look bad will be less effective, easier to spot, and considered unattractive behavior. As such any competition will be limited to bettering one's self. Finally attempting to make people you are unattracted to appear less valuable as if your not being attracted to them means others should not be as well would also be considered degenerate behavior.

 

Anger and jealousy will be less prevalent both because of less belief that someone failing to choose you means you are a less valuable person and because conniving tactics will be less effective. In such an enviornment we could well find that we no longer wish to limit the amount of affection we give and recieve between parties. However at no point would anyone be forced to have many partners or anything like you might have seen in a movie such as brave new world.