A deep recession has arrived in the U.S. and many, if not most, of the other nations of the world. The U.S. government is throwing all the money it can dig up at the recession. In the process, some companies are being taken over by the Government and other companies will either go bankrupt or eventually be taken over. Additionally, all sorts of make-work grants and tax breaks are being handed out. As the bail-out processes proceed, many conservatives are alleging that capitalism is being abandoned and the country is being socialized by the Democrats who now control the Presidency and both legislative branches of the government.
Of course, some of this talk is nothing more than an attempt by some right-wingers like Rush Limbaugh to atone for the savage political beatings given the Conservatives during the past two elections. I can't blame them for their attempts because the Democrats would no doubt be carrying on similarly if they had just been beaten up on. But, are the Conservatives taking their whining too far and is it really whining or have the Democrats actually begun a socialism process in the U.S.? And did the Democrats have any choice in the matter or did the deteriorated situation inherited from the Bush Administration justify their drastic actions?
Socialism is defined by Wikipedia as "a broad set of economic theories of social organization advocating public or state ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods, and society characterized by equality for all individuals with a fair or egalitarian method of compensation." Wikipedia goes on to say "Karl Marx posited that socialism would be achieved via class struggle and a proletarian revolution, and would represent a transitional stage between the capitalist and communist modes of production."
Capitalism is defined by Wikipedia as, "an economic system in which wealth, and the means of producing wealth, are privately owned. Through capitalism, the land, labor, and capital are owned, operated, and traded, without force or fraud, by private individuals either singly or jointly, and investments, distribution, income, production, pricing and supply of goods, commodities and services are determined by voluntary private decision in a market economy."
Wikipedia goes on to state that, "A distinguishing feature of capitalism is that each person owns his or her own labor and therefore is allowed to sell the use of it to employers."
Laissez-faire capitalism is considered by some to be "pure capitalism." Pure capitalism does not exist in the real world, however, and most economies have a mixture of private and public ownership In other words, most economies are a mix of capitalism and socialism
Socialists generally believe that capitalism concentrates power and wealth unfairly among a small segment of society and that the system does not allow equal opportunities for all persons in society. There is not just one system of socialism but a number of branches of it.
Some of the branches of socialism have ideas that oppose the ideas of other branches. For example, some socialist branches advocate complete nationalization of the means of production and distribution while other branches make heavy use of a market system. When the Soviet economy was rapidly growing, many of the socialists branches adopted the Soviet system which heavily relied on central planning with the planning performed by the state which owns all the means of production. But, other branches combined state ownership with varying degrees of the free market system. It appears that almost every socialist country had its own unique socialist economic system.
There is little doubt that the U.S. has drifted away from capitalism during the present economic downturn. The U.S. now has a more planned economy than it did even two years ago. Additionally, more of our system is now state-owned. But for Rush Limbaugh and the conservatives to claim that we are becoming a socialist nation is not correct. The slight, but significant, move toward socialism appears justified by the severe recession. Likely, the move toward socialism will be reversed in a year or so when economic conditions improve.
Last Updated: December 10, 2009
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