Originally Posted by
KerrAvon
I’m a bit annoyed, John, because the speaker in Biggie’s video has rather stolen my thunder on some of my points on this.
The common theme to the economic theories of Communism and Socialism is the notion of the abolition of the private ownership of Capital (i.e. Capitalism) and its replacement by common ownership of the means of production.
I think you may be getting hung up on labels. The Russian Empire (or Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, if you prefer) and the Eastern European countries that fell under its influence may have claimed to be Communist states, but Marx would have been turning in his London grave at that notion. They may have practiced the abolition of the private ownership of capital, but they never even approached a state that could be called Communist. They were stuck in Marx’s transitional Socialist state and the people who lived there paid the price (and are still doing so to a slowly diminishing degree – hence the large Westward migration that we saw post 2004).
The Scandinavian countries are not Socialist states. They are universally committed to free-market Capitalist economics (albeit the Norwegian Sovereign Wealth Fund is a major investor in Norwegians companies and, indeed, many companies around the world). The Swedish government is just completing a sell off of state owned assets that is aimed at paying down their Sovereign debt in order to reduce the burden on future generations – a move that is diametrically opposite to the notion that they are Socialist and diametrically opposite to the plans of the current Labour set up.
Again, with Scandinavia I think the issue may be one of labelling – many people who call themselves Socialist aren’t really – they simply believe in a larger welfare state and other mechanisms aimed at achieving a more equitable distribution of wealth. I used to think that of the current Labour set up until they announced their intention to seize 10% of the capital of every decent sized British company – a move that will sign the death warrant on hundreds of thousands of jobs and pension fund values.
Marx was wrong. Socialism doesn’t work (and neither will Communism if a state ever gets round to trying to practice it). People who work hard, innovate and are willing to take risks to improve their lot want and expect to directly benefit from that. When you tell those people that the product of their hard work, innovation or risk taking will be taken into common ownership they tend to stop working hard, innovating or taking risk to try to improve their lot. Eliminating the effect of market forces by creating state owned monopolies exacerbates the problem. That’s why a few lucky East Germans got to drive round in Trabants whilst their Western neighbours drove round in VWs, BMWs, Mercs and Audis. It’s why South Korea has spawned industrial giants like Samsung and LG, whilst their neighbours to the North have spawned poverty and misery (although, in fairness, the South Koreans were helped by their close realtionshiop with the US).
Are you going to the Bristol game next week?
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