What was Socialism?
"Socialism: The name given to schemes for regenerating society by a more equal distribution of property, esp. by substituting the principle of association for that of competition."
Definition from the original American Dictionary of the English Language, 1899.
When we forget hard lessons of the past we tend to painfully relearn what we already had known.
Definition from the original American Dictionary of the English Language, 1899.
When we forget hard lessons of the past we tend to painfully relearn what we already had known.
All Comments
- 1Posted by Solver 13 years, 7 months ago in reply to this comment.I just thought it was interesting how America thought about and defined Socialism over 100 years ago. Today it almost seems like Socialism is promoted as the first solution to solve Capitalism.| Permalink
- 1Posted by DGriffing 13 years, 7 months agoThis doesn't define socialism in terms of its essentials. Socialism is a social/economic system characterized by collective, (government) ownership and control of economic property. Philosophically, Ayn Rand said "Socialism is the doctrine that man has no right to exist for his own sake, that his life and his work do not belong to him, but belong to society, that the only justification of his existence is his service to society, and that society may dispose of him in any way it pleases for the sake of whatever it deems to be its own tribal, collective good." Standard definitions of socialism refer to it as an economic system characterised by collective ownership of the means of production and collective management of the economy -- as contrasted to capitalism's individualism, private property and private ownership and control of economic enterprises.| Permalink
