To wonder how Socialism would work in the UK?

[smashinghairday]

I read posters talk about Socialism and wonder how people would like to see it operate in the UK today?

Is it desirable or achievable?

You can aquire things under socialism, just not under pure communism.

Equating socialism to communism is like equating the Tories with the Nazi party.

Just saying its quite interesting that there are so many millionaires in the cabinet. Its a fact that if you are a millionaire you will be less reliant/ have less need for good public services.

So I wonder what attracted them to government, and how relevant their work actually is to them.

I wonder why our system has produced this concentration of a financial minority in government. Does it gibe them a huge advantage - are they there on merit or money?

world socialist movement

How accurate is this description of socialism?

I'm suddenly terribly confused about what socialism actually is!

uh, China is socialist in name only. In many regards, it is much more capitalist and free-market than other countries in the world.

TheMagnificentBathykolpian - Ive got a blog, its called 'Im the ruler of the world'. Are you terribly confused about who's in charge now?

No. The lizards are in charge. That much I do know.

That's not my understanding of socialism. I think the term means different things to different people.

Yes. I think you are right.

A system where everyone is entitled to the same, regardless of whether they volunteer their services to produce it or not, isn't realistic.

You've only got to look at how difficult it is to persuade some (SOME) people that they should work if they can, rather than choosing not to, to see how laughably unworkable it would be in this country.

There's a very funny book called Acts of Destruction which tries to imagine just that. Well, its a detective novel, but set in an imaginary future in which the UK is run on socialist green lines.

I thought it was great (admittedly because one of the crimes that gets solved is persistent thefts from vegetable gardens ), one of my favourite bits was that people get paid according to how many people want to do the job that they are working at. So uniformed coppers get paid less than CID, because more people want to be CID. Kind of how capitalism ought to work but doesn't :)

Please excuse me for being a bit thick, but could someone explain how a socialist society would differ from the Uk's current system?

"Please excuse me for being a bit thick, but could someone explain how a socialist society would differ from the Uk's current system?"

Yes, we'd basically have a lot of people doing nothing at all because they would be entitled to the same services and material goods as those who wanted to work.

Kingof, I think people have a very varied and wide ranging view of what socialism could consist of.

That could mean anything from a system like we had in Britain in the 70s, so a fairly comprehensive welfare state but the system of production running largely as it does now, perhaps with a certain number of 'natural monopolies' run by the State, through to a system where 'the people' own 'the means of production' in its entirety.

And the latter could mean anything from state Socialism as it used to be in Eastern Europe, to an economy made up of co-operatives and worker owned businesses.

I think many people would consider the Scandinavian countries to be run on socialist lines (though they might describe themselves as 'social democratic').

In those countries, there is still differentiation of income, for example, but the spread from the highest to the lowest paid is much smaller.

My (atheist, but culturally Church of Scotland) father always said that Jesus was a Socialist, warning the rich that they wouldn't get into heaven (the 'eye of the needle' bit I think).

So would this make church communities Socialist, sharing their excess wealth with those less fortunate?

Who was it who said Communism was like Christianity, it hadn't been tried and found wanting, it had been found hard and not tried?

ah indeed ..'the gospel demnds h first radical revolution'

i don't think Christ had state control in mind though.

he probably thought more of some kind of agrarian-ideal-society, based on community and family values...

how can China be free-market when there is no such thing as a Chinese NGO?

the government is still a finger in every slice of chinese pie.

amusing, when western journos make much of bidding for chinese contracts- failing to realise that all sides putting in bids were different branches of the government.

ownership of the 'means of production' could also mean employee share-ownership schemes....

There are some who claim that Scotland has been subsidising the rest of the UK.....once we have full independence, then we will know for sure....

Marxism defines socialism as a necessary path to communism wherein the means of production are publicly owned, so noone can one a factory so there is no point upgrading it so it becomes unproductive, look at any 'shared space' do people look after or just let it rot and let someone else sort it.

I'm definitely more Socialist than Communist.
Communism is just completely unworkable.

It is undoubtedly desirable, but people are so pre-programmed to "know their place" that I doubt it's achievable. And people who talk about "motivation to succeed" need to know two things. Success isn't just measured in money, and the way things are now those from wealthy families end up taking 90% of the decent jobs and money anyway...so where's the "motivation" for the rest?

Moonferret, DP and I have decent jobs, and so do loads of people we know. None of whom came from wealthy families.....

The general evidence shows that social mobility is at an all-time low in this country. The majority of people in professions such as law and medicine (particularly at the upper end) come from middle and upper class families. Of course there are always exceptions that prove the rule (such as Alan Sugar)..but overwhelmingly the wealthy come from wealth...