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From: faustus@ucbcad.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: Re: Socialism vs Capitalism:Part 1
Message-ID: <77@ucbcad.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 26-Jan-85 14:25:56 EST
Article-I.D.: ucbcad.77
Posted: Sat Jan 26 14:25:56 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 28-Jan-85 06:13:47 EST
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> Socialism does *not* place the "group as the standard of value".  It places
> equality of individuals within society as an important value.

> Democratic Socialism need not turn anybody into "animals to be sacrificed".
> If one accepts a basic equality between individuals as a central value
> then one also accepts that it would be a travesty of such equality to
> sacrifice one person for another person.   If one person has the right
> to be fed, then all people have the right to be fed.  That one person
> who has more may be forced to contribute to those who have less
> does not mean that person will be left with nothing.  They will 
> undoubtedly *still* have more than those worse off.  But at least people
> who are old, handicapped, or otherwise debilitated will be able to preserve
> their right to life.  Of course people who are able-bodied will be
> fed as well.  I do not think this is so terrible.
>   
> tim sevener   whuxl!orb

It's unclear whether you mean "equality of opportunity" or "equality of
result". If you start people off with the same resources (a good
education, mainly), I think that, with the possible exception of things
they can't control like sickness and natural disasters, they should get
what they get.  What much socialism ends up as is "equality of result",
where if somebody does better just because he works harder, or is more
intelligent, he is penalized for this, or in the case of many communist
societies, gets a medal and a handshake from the local part official
for his trouble. (For an extreme version of "equality of result", a
sort of paranoid libertarian's nightmare, read "The Fountainhead"...)

	Wayne