this post was submitted on 14 Aug 2023
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Socialism
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Y'all know that communism and socialism are two different things, right?
This video whines about propaganda being the problem, as if we haven't seen communism destroy the USSR.
As an economic system, communism failed. Having a central authority trying to take resources and distribute them to those with the greatest need was an absolute failure.
Capitalism thrived because of pure efficiency... as it turns out, with all the countless variables that affect people, in the end, a free market that allows people to decide on what they need at any given moment, and how much it's worth to them, capitalism was OBVIOUSLY superior.
So, how do we move forward in a world of late-stage capitalism where the wealth became too concentrated in the hands of the ultra-wealthy and mega-corporations?
That's where socialism can come into play. Bernie Sanders calls his policies "Democratic Socialism", but this is a misnomer. What he actually advocates for is Socialized Capitalism.
Let's face it: Capitalism is the greatest generator of wealth ever created. So instead of tearing it down, Bernie Sanders would have us keep the machine running, but to redistribute the wealth when it got into the hands of the super wealthy.
To me, this is a no-brainer. Keep using capitalism to generate new wealth, allow the hardest workers and innovators to become rich... but keep these in incentives to exactly the minimum level they need to be in order to motivate people.
For example... do you think college drop-out Bill Gates, working in his parents' garage would have worked any less hard if he knew he was going to earn $50,000,000 instead of $80,000,000,000?
Of course not.
So set exponentially higher taxes that make it virtually impossible to earn more than $50 million. Allow our rich people to have great wealth, enough to motivate people to shoot for that lifestyle... but then keep that wealth to a level where it isn't taking the bare necessities from other people.
Redistributing wealth is a great idea, but you first need to have a system that generates wealth. Communism absolutely fails at that.
Communism was the system that made russia the superpower it is today, and was far from the only factor in the downfall of the ussr, which was an incredibly undemocratic move brought about by gorbachev and hid cooperation with american companies. If 'generating wealth' is more important to you than the livelihood and wellbeing of the people you might want to reconsider your stance on the purpose of an economy
Russia was a superpower because it has 30% of the world's natural resources.
it still has plenty of resources, but some events led to destroying all the factories so it's now a shell of "its" former self, hmmm i wonder which ones