Why do so many people distrust socialism?

[malificent7]

Is it due to the legacy of Marx, the notion that it's a race to the bottom, the feeling that those who work harder should get paid more or a mistrust of human nature?
I do understand these concerns but what is more worrying if the vast inequality that seems to prevail nowadays. Thoughts please.

But where to vote now?

Read up on life in communist Russia and if you don’t like it vote Conservative is my advice. McDonnel stands up and talks under posters of Stalin.

You don't, actually

Depends how you define it doesn’t it. We have unrestricted capital flow, a great degree of privatisation of services and general lack of state control and ownership of production. If you meant a 100% free market with zero regulation then no. But no one is advocating that so it’s a straw man argument.

It doesn't matter what people advocate. You have some form of trade regulation, worker protection, state owned services, non worker protection, etc.
This means you don't have a pure capitalist system. Like it's nonsense to consider any socialism as the most extreme form. Only very few and very small western parties advocate the more extreme forms of socialism.
Meaning that both capitalism and socialism have good things. It doesn't have to be a dicotomy, but rather a healthy mixture of the two.

We don't have unrestricted capitalism or even unrestricted capital flow. There is no economy in the world which doesn't operate some sort of socialist systems.

Socialism is not comnunism, all of our markets are regulated in some way and thr means of exchange is controlled by the government.

Read up on life in communist Russia and if you don’t like it vote Conservative is my advice.

Statements like this are rather stupid.
The alternative to the Conservatives is NOT communist Russia, FFS.

People don’t like paying taxes. They also complain about having shit services. But they really, really don’t like paying taxes!
Socialism has become the boogeyman in Trumps America.

Read up on life in communist Russia and if you don’t like it vote Conservative is my advice.

This is one of the most stupid comments I've seen on here in a long time.

Did the 1946 Labour government that brought in the NHS resemble communist Russia? FFS.

Statements like this are rather stupid. The alternative to the Conservatives is NOT communist Russia, FFS.

But the shadow chancellor has said he’s a Marxist. I’ll help you out, that’s communism

He appears under posters of Stalin And Mao. Again I’ll help you, they were communists who murdered tens of millions of their countrymen

And Labour have plans to excessively tax property and make inheritance impossible. Sounds very much like an attack on private ownership. One more piece of help for you, that’s a tennent of communism

With these clowns in opposition the choice really is capitalism that has raised the living standard to levels that would have seemed impossible even a few decades ago, or... communism

Meaning that both capitalism and socialism have good things. It doesn't have to be a dicotomy, but rather a healthy mixture of the two.

Exactly. When the pendulum swings too far in one direction, we need policies of the other system in order to obtain a balance. We need some socialist policies now to address the damage done to the people left behind by capitalism. It doesn't mean that the people advocating these policies are communists or that they want to emulate the USSR!

No marxism isn't communism, in fact most of what Marx wrote about is capitalism.

Also, even if the shadow chancellor said he wad a comnunist and it wasn't party policy to implement communism, it wouldn't mean that they were communists..

The current home secretary backs bringing back hanging, does that mean its government policy? JRM backs banning abortion.

Labour don't have plans to excessively tax property or make inheritence impossible. Utter erroneous hyperbole.

And Labour have plans to excessively tax property and make inheritance impossible.

Why shouldn't people who have seen their house values rise to many multiples of what they paid for them pay some tax? They are sitting on a huge amount of unearned wealth, while the younger generation who are working long hours for shit pay have been locked out.

Anyone who gets an inheritance has a massive advantage over those who don't. In many cases it's the deciding factor in whether a person can afford a house or not. Nobody is trying to take away inheritance and to say so is scaremongering. I don't see why it shouldn't be taxed appropriately.

And Labour have plans to excessively tax property and make inheritance impossible.

I haven’t fact-checked this claim and I’m dubious as to whether labour have explicitly stated they want to remove inheritance but if they have - good! Inheritance should be abolished. Wealth shouldn’t stay within families. It should be absorbed back into local authorities to ensure there’s affordable housing for everyone.

Nobody is trying to take away inheritance and to say so is scaremongering. I don't see why it shouldn't be taxed appropriately.

And who exactly are you to judge what is ‘appropriate’ for a parent to pass on to their child? THIS is why anyone who ever has or expects to have more than the socialist-approved minimum will vote for Anyone But Corbyn.

Neither of the things claimed were true.

Well, quite.

The way our parliament works even if a couple of party leaders are radical there is an opposition. Law has to be voted through the house. Precisely why Brexit has tumbled on in the way it has.

Whatever the leadership preference party policy as voted for by the members is much more moderate and many of the policies are desperately needed to redress the balance of the neoliberalism that has been going on for too long now.

John McDonnell and Jeremy Corbyn won't and can't transform this country into a communist utopia overnight. Not the way our parliament works.

The kid with the right connections, went to a private school and will have his education funded by Daddy. This kid will be a future coke addict banker in central London

Generalising much?

I haven’t fact-checked this claim and I’m dubious as to whether labour have explicitly stated they want to remove inheritance but if they have - good! Inheritance should be abolished. Wealth shouldn’t stay within families.

Seems like more than a few ‘socialists’ really are indistinguishable from communists after all! “No wealth should stay within families” - are you a time-traveller from Mao’s China?

And who exactly are you to judge what is ‘appropriate’ for a parent to pass on to their child?

Well if you're in a position to enforce it, you have a democratic mandate to judge. So there's that.

"socialist approved minimum"

More dire hyperbole, bit worried about something ?

The government currently judges what it is appropriate to pass on to ones children ans has done for centuries.

The housing market is completely stupid. I used to be a homeowner and bought my house for £62,500 in 1999. It's recently been sold for £160,000.

When people are making money from doing precisely nothing and other people are completely unable to afford housing because of their greed something needs to change.

Ah, so getting a 25 year mortgage, earning a salary, paying tax on that salary, and then paying the mortgage out of that post-tax income counts as ‘precisely nothing’ and entitles me to the same housing as someone who has done none of those things?

Your socialism is of an extreme kind indeed!

Is that anything at all like earning a salary, paying tax on that salary, and then paying rent out of that post-tax income, but then not making tens of thousands of profit out of the process?

You have heard of this little thing called “property rights”, upon which the entire global economy is founded? Good luck getting the votes of property owners if you don’t believe in the concept of private property!

No, the massive inflation of the housing market is precisely nothing. Obviously things do rise in price but when 20 years ago you could buy a house for 3 x salary you're now looking for averages of 10 x salary. It's just not sustainable.

My parents' house cost £14,000 on purchase. Now it's worth £400,000. I know I'll have to pay IHT on that and it's only fair. That is if it's not needed to pay for care before she dies. That's ok. I'm not selfish.

I won't need their votes, I'll be seizing power in a socialist revolution of course