Socialism is an economic system in which there is government ownership (often referred to as “state run”) of goods and their production, with an impetus to share work and wealth equally among the members of a society.
Reading: Capitalism and Socialism. (n.d.) Retrieved from https://courses.lumenlearning.com/alamo-sociology/chapter/reading-capitalism-and-socialism/. In a socialistic economic system, the means of production, the state owns and manages it. Under a socialism economy, it involves an effort to provide a balance between the rich and the poor.
Also under a socialistic economy, all citizens would be able to have free access to services and goods that are aimed directly to their needs and there is no demand of compensation for the jobs because individuals donate to generating them. The work would all be done on voluntary basis. Producing for needs is defined as people engaging in work that is directly useful to their particular needs. The satisfaction that they would receive from producing their needs, along with the increased chance to influence working conditions and patterns, it would give a different satisfaction to working. An advantage of living in a socialist society, is that education is accessible to all individuals and people will be able to have their medical needs met because it would be more affordable to get medical insurance. Another advantage is that groups that are more vulnerable such as the older people, the disabled, and the people that require long term care because they are sick, are taken care of a lot better. A disadvantage of living in a socialism economy is there could be an increase in power of big government and the state, which could eventually control all aspect of people’s lives, including housing and the workplace.
Another disadvantage of living in a socialist economy is that it could resort in more political groups that will decide how citizen’s lives should be run. The system is halted, and people with their own interests in mind may dominate with their own agendas. With more profits to be made, the motivation to make progressions and services quicker, can vanish, thus leading to inferior services and good for consumers.
Capitalism is the social system which now exists in all countries of the world. Under this system, the means for producing and distributing goods (the land, factories, technology, transport system etc.) are owned by a small minority of people. We refer to this group of people as the capitalist class. The majority of people must sell their ability to work in return for a wage or salary (who we refer to as the working class.) World Socialist Movement (n.d.) Retrieved from http://www.
worldsocialism.org/english/what-capitalism. A capitalism economy is much like what we live in today. An advantage of capitalism is economic freedom. Economic freedom assists in political freedom. If governments possess the methods of setting prices and production, it leads to a state that is powerful and establishes a large government which has the power to extend into many other areas of life. Another advantage of capitalism is economic growth.
With businesses and individuals being able to get incentives to be revolutionized and work harder, this provides an environment for economic expansion and an atmosphere for innovation. Some disadvantages of capitalism is wealth inequality and inherited wealth. Living in a capitalist society is fair, according to capitalists, they think you should earn the rewards of their hard work. But, often people are rich before they are born, they do not have to reap rewards for working hard because they are born into privileged classes.
Consequently, a capitalist society fails to establish equality of consequence and fails to provide the opportunity of equality. In the last presidential election Donald Trump was more capitalist and Hilary Clinton was more socialist. I would prefer to live in a socialist economy. Former President Barack Obama, Hilary Clinton and Bernie Sanders platforms were built on the idea that the wealthy should be forced to split portions of their wealth with the middle class through taxation.
The government then provides benefits to the middle class through free education, healthcare, and food and welfare programs.Characteristics of RevolutionThe four characteristics of revolutions are rising expectations, unresponsive government, radical leadership by intellectuals, and establish a new legitimacy. Rising expectations is used to explain the expectation of the poorest countries for a better healthier future in the wake of de-colonialization after war. Researchers applied the idea of the revolution of rising expectations to describe the attractiveness of communism in some third world countries and also revolutions overall. The phrase “a revolution of rising expectations” became popular after World War II.
It refers to a situation in which a rise in prosperity and freedom leads people to believe they can improve life for themselves and their families. It leads them to seek political changes that will allow them to pursue opportunity. McElroy, Wendy 2016 May 1 The Revolution of Rising Expectations Retrieved from https://www.fff.org/explore-freedom/article/revolution-rising-expectations/.
Following soon after the Civil War the term “radical” became largely prevalent in usage in the United States often applied to a powerful faction of the governing Republican Party who fought to reconstruct the defeated Confederacy. Radical leadership by intellectuals we’re more worried about moral and cultural values than with political or social issues. Radicals, in the 1930s started to voice their resistance. They began to search for new way that distance many of them from their political social and philosophical beginnings. Liberal dignitaries were leaning several inches to the left, but many of the radicalized intellectuals were progressing father and faster in that direction.
During the French Revolution, they were able to appreciate the advantages of radical intellectual leadership. During the Cuban Revolution, they pursued to create a new legitimacy with this the throwing of the Batista leaders because they were seen as pawns to the capitalist and refusing economic rights to citizens. A good example of an unresponsive government is with the Russian Revolution it was when the provisional government and later after the Communists had the ability to declare their right to power with a deteriorating Czar government with the rising of World War 1. And unresponsive government in modern time led to the election of a president with no prior political experience. The modern-day citizens wanted to see what a non-typical president could do for the country. And unresponsive government is becoming more likely because people feel that they have a government who is not likely to reform itself. The Constitution was helpful with helping the government establish legitimacy. Our government was weak as it was under the Articles of Confederation before the Constitution was brought about.
They were weak and unsuccessful dealing with American problems. Since our government couldn’t force people to join the military, other countries were pushing us around. Also because the government was unable to impose a tax, we had financial problems. After the Constitution was implemented, changes were noticeable.
The government finally were able to find a solution for the financial problems, and the President was now able to deal with issues such as when countries interfered in our trading. Now that we have the Constitution, the government was able to create a military and they were also able to provide supplies to the soldiers. The Constitution provided the government with the power to establish legitimacy in our country as well as other countries.
