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Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!harpo!floyd!vax135!cornell!uw-beaver!ubc-visi!alberta!stephen
From: stephen@alberta
Newsgroups: net.flame
Subject: Re: Socialism
Message-ID: <494@alberta.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 4-Oct-83 03:39:41 EDT
Article-I.D.: alberta.494
Posted: Tue Oct  4 03:39:41 1983
Date-Received: Thu, 6-Oct-83 08:48:15 EDT
References: <785@bronze.UUCP>
Organization: U. of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada
Lines: 52



   ... Pure socialism cannot work, it needs some capitalism to survive.
-----------------
Nor can pure capitalism work -- IT needs some Socialism to survive

    >>It is possible to have democratic socialism (eg. Sweeden) as well
    as >>capitalist dictatorships (eg. several South American
    countries).

    "Capitalist Dictatorships"????    That's like using the phrase
    "free slaves".  Either free individuals make the decisions about
    what to do with the products of their work, or a dictator does.
    The former is capitalism, while the latter is a dictatorship, which
    is often "fascist", or more properly, national socialist.  The two
    are mutually exclusive.

    IF IT INVOLVES COERCION, IT CAN'T BE CAPITALISM!

    Capitalism is based on FREE individuals, while socialism on a large
    scale (there are exceptions in small-scale experiments of
    volunteers) cannot work without coercion.  There are always some
    individuals that do not wish to surrender their hard-earned
    property to the state.  The state must be willing to kill them if
    they don't, or socialism will collapse.  ....
-------------------------------
 Capitalism and socialism are ECONOMIC systems, not political ones.
A dictator who does not meddle with the free market system (no
matter how ruthless he is otherwise) runs a free-market (capitalist)
dictatorship.

If you really want to pick nits, neither capitalism nor socialism, in
their pure forms allows for ANY government AT ALL.

  A pure capitalist system is a dog-eat-dog world where everyone looks
out for himself and damn the other guy (unless it does me some good).
Governments only get in the way of true capitalists.

  In a pure socialist system everyone looks out for EVERYONE and
therefore there is NO NEED for a government.  Governments just foul
things up for a true socialist.

  However, In a pure COMMUNIST system the government looks out for
ITSELF. People get in the way of a true communist and should be
replaced wherever possible. (True communists suffer from a
Stalinist hangover)

"The only difference between a mega-corperation and a communist
government is who holds the monopoly."

   Stephen Samuel
     (alberta!stephen)