Socialism
Socialism includes various theories of economic organization that advocate public or direct worker ownership and administration of the means of production and allocation of resources, and a society characterized by equal access to resources for all individuals, with an egalitarian method of compensation. Socialists argue for cooperative/community or state control of the economy, or the "commanding heights" of the economy, with democratic control by the people over the state, although there have been some undemocratic philosophies. "State" or "worker cooperative" ownership is in fundamental opposition to "private" ownership of the means of production, which is the defining feature of capitalism. Most socialists argue that capitalism unfairly concentrates power, wealth and profit, among a small segment of society that controls capital and derives its wealth through exploitation, stifling technological and economic progress by maintaining an anarchy of production.
Read more about this topic: Anti-capitalism
Famous quotes containing the word socialism:
“Men conceive themselves as morally superior to those with whom they differ in opinion. A Socialist who thinks that the opinions of Mr. Gladstone on Socialism are unsound and his own sound, is within his rights; but a Socialist who thinks that his opinions are virtuous and Mr. Gladstone’s vicious, violates the first rule of morals and manners in a Democratic country; namely, that you must not treat your political opponent as a moral delinquent.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)
“There’s no such thing as socialism pure
Except as an abstraction of the mind.
There’s only democratic socialism,
Monarchic socialism, oligarchic
The last being what they seem to have in Russia.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“Without freedom, no art; art lives only on the restraints it imposes on itself, and dies of all others. But without freedom, no socialism either, except the socialism of the gallows.”
—Albert Camus (1913–1960)