The Socialism Website

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I recently read the 'socialism' entry in the 100 year-old Catholic Encyclopedia. If it was inspired by The Almighty, he must have been having a bad day. Nevertheless, if you want a short introduction to pre-20th century socialism, you could find worse. It was also thought provoking in places. So thank you God.

There are a number of matters that it raises that I would like to address. I will  cover them in a number of posts. In this one I will discuss the claim that socialism prohibits private ownership of the means of production. (The next one will be on socialism being "materialistic".)

The article says:
 

"State control and even state ownership are not necessarily Socialism: they become so only when they result in or tend towards the prohibition of private ownership not only of "natural monopolies", but also of all the sources of wealth."

After various transitional arrangements, we can certainly say that all businesses would be publicly owned under socialism. That would mean that if you or a group of people wanted to set up a business, you would approach funding sources just like you would now except that you would not have funds of your own involved and you would work purely for a wage. You would be motivated by the work and the desire to contribute. You would still have 'skin in the game' of sorts - not financial but moral - honor and reputation.

Notwithstanding initial compulsion to expropriate the old owners and prevent the emergence of a new lot while human nature is undergoing a few adjustments, social ownership ultimately has to maintain its position through being superior. It needs to be superior in terms of both output and relations between people. Just as no one now wants  to revert from capitalism to feudalism so in the future no one will want to revert from socialism to capitalism. A socially-owned business would have to be more competitive on cost and quality. The relationship between socially owned suppliers and customers needs to be superior to relations where a private firm is involved. Consumers need to feel more confident in a socially provided product or service. Conditions need to be such that no one wants to be an employe or a business owner

As we know 'actually existing socialism' did not create something better than capitalism and they collapsed once compulsion was removed. (Check the discussion of these regimes in the FAQs.) I am just thinking that an exploration of why real compulsion-free socialism is presently impossible in Cuba would help us get a better grasp of the matter.