Quote:
Originally Posted by Adder
Is it? Can we agree on a definition of socialism before we decide?
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"A political and economic theory of social organization which advocates that the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole."
The "regulated" part is desired. The argument there is one of degree.
The "owned" portion is not desired. But there is an argument of degree, or regarding certain services and industries, to be engaged there. I'm increasingly coming to the view that some things, like health care, might not be appropriately placed entirely in private hands. I'm also reaching the conclusion that perhaps search should be a public utility. And that data mined from consumers should belong to the public rather than the sites and search engines that compile it. Or, alternatively, that people should be paid for the extraction and use of their data (Jaron Lanier's idea).
True socialism does not work. Partial socialism, which we have, can work. The cartoon suggested that we needed true socialism. I'd say to the extent socialism works, and it does for some things, it should be employed sparingly.
