In the ‘50s, when I was in high school and college, the big threat was “Communism.” Today, Conservatives and other denizens of the Right Wing see “Socialism” as the big threat, though I also think they conflate Socialism and Communism. Virtually everything the Democrats favor is branded “Socialism.” So what is the reality of socialism in our time?
A friend of mine has written a very nice little book on this subject. Check out “Has the Democratic Party Become Socialist?” by Merrill Ring on Amazon. So what I write here is something of a digestion of Merrill’s discussion. One of the messages that Merrill puts forward — and I had not really thought about this — is that Capitalism came into the modern world before Socialism. Indeed, Capitalism grew out of the ancient system of Feudalism — first as Agrarian capitalism, then as mercantilism, and finally as industrial capitalism. As it evolved in the late 18th Century in England, Capitalism as an economic system and Democracy as a political system grew up more-or-less together. Capitalism meant that a single person who owned some means of production, hired wage laborers to create products, sold his products in a free market, and kept the proceeds in excess of his expenses as his “profits.” Democracy meant that government was responsive to the will of the population, usually through elected representatives.
As Merrill observes, Socialism appeared on the scene as a criticism of Capitalism. But why should Capitalism be criticized? Well, when we were talking about agrarian capitalism, we were pretty close to Jeffersonian democracy —- land owning farmers who shared common interests. But the age of industrial capitalism turned out very differently. A small minority owns the means of production and there are no longer “common interests.” Indeed, the Capitalist’s interest is his own wealth (accumulated profits), and the road to making profits is to charge a high price for your products and pay low wages to your wage earners (including, of course, colonizing remote places in order to buy resources at very low cost). Corporate capitalism simply replaces the individual Capitalist with a CEO and a large group of investors, but the interest in profits remains.
The question that hangs over the capitalist ideal even to this day is whether the Capitalist can act with a moral sensitivity when it comes to his wage earners, the quality of his products, and his treatment of those who provide resources. If the Capitalist were a truly moral agent, it would likely be an ideal economic system. Unfortunately, while there are some exceptions, history generally demonstrates greed and a lack of humanity rather than moral agency. Hence, capitalism has been criticized and other economic systems have been proposed. Here is where things get really tricky. Socialism is one of the economic systems proposed. No Democrat that I am aware of has ever proposed Socialism for America. So what turns the Right Wing hysterical is anything that sounds “socialist.” In his book, Merrill Ring takes apart a vast number of “socialist proposals,” all with the advice that we should be cautious. What Democrats strive for is an economy where all people are respected and have opportunities to live productive lives.
Consider the good old corporate practice of firing employees when they get too old.Why should a person who has worked productively throughout his or her life be dropped into poverty. Well, Social Security tried to solve that problem. But that is “socialism” to the Right Wing.
