Over a year ago a poll taken by YouGov said 44 percent of Millennials (those born from 1981 to 1996) prefer Socialism to Capitalism.   Yet 71 percent could not properly describe the difference between Socialism and Communism.

“The primary difference between communism and socialism is that communism is a political system and socialism is chiefly an economic system. Communism focuses on putting the working class ‘in charge’ of society by having the government control the means of production, whereas socialism focuses on making sure that all individuals have their basic needs met.

Socialism is often mistaken for communism, and it can be argued that communism is simply an extreme form of socialism. This is because socialism is predicated on the idea that providing for the needs of all members of society will ultimately benefit the society.

Communism takes this idea further by eliminating individual ownership of any goods. Communism shares wealth based on “each according to his need,” rather than based on the skill of the individual. This is supposed to create a society without social classes, and in which everyone receives equal treatment. Violence is often considered an acceptable means of changing a society to get to this point if necessary.

In contrast, socialism focuses on working within capitalism rather than trying to eliminate classes altogether. Socialism focuses on regulation and taxes rather than violent overthrow of the established political order. Socialism attempts to work within the established political order.” (reference.com)

You might say socialism is a perverted form of capitalism, and it never succeeds.

 

Communism asserts that both capitalism and private ownership of the means of production must be done away with as soon as possible in order to make sure a classless society — the communist ideal — is formed.   Communism depends on strict control by the government of all economic and personal decisions i.e. in China a couple must get permission from several different “authorities” to have a baby.  There are no political parties, no upper class or middle class of citizens, etc.

Socialists assert that wealthy people who own the means of production are able to exploit workers in order to make more money and become even richer, thereby increasing their power over the workers. By eliminating private ownership of factories and companies, socialists believe, the workers can be paid more.  Thus, they push for “distribution of wealth” yet at the same time they must enact higher taxes to pay for the government ownership and management of factories and companies (and this includes “factory farms”).

Socialists typically see capitalism as a steppingstone toward the ideal state and believe that socialism can develop out of a capitalistic society. In fact, one of the ideas of socialism is that everyone within the society will benefit from capitalism as much as possible as long as the capitalism is controlled somehow by a centralized planning system (meaning the government).

Nobel-winning economist Milton Friedman said people fall for socialism because it’s easy.  It’s much more complicated to understand the rewards and results of free trade.

Moreover, Friedman said, “people think that when you argue [for capitalism], you’re arguing for selfishness, for greed.”

“That’s utter nonsense,” he insisted.

“The people who are in power in a political hierarchy are also selfish and greedy. Mankind is selfish and greedy,” Friedman continued.

And therein lies the deadly aspect of socialism.

In 1979 on the Phil Donohue show, when Donohue talked about the “mal-distribution of wealth around the world” and asked if Friedman ever doubted capitalism [because of poverty seen in many countries].  Friedman  said “…the only instances in which the masses have escaped from the kind of grinding poverty that you are talking about … are where they have had capitalism and largely free trade.  It’s absolutely crystal clear that there is no alternative way, so far discovered, for improving the lot of ordinary people that can hold a candle to the productive activities that are unleashed by a free enterprise system.” 

Capitalism IS the Lifeblood of Freedom.