Comments by "SmallSpoonBrigade" (@SmallSpoonBrigade) on "Why Socialism Sucks In Theory And Practice" video.

That's because at that time, it was still possible for normal people to expect to have a better standard of living than their parents if they worked harder and smarter. Nobody with any sense still believes that bedtime story at this point. There's also far less ignorance about what socialism actually is and what it's like in practice. All socialism means is that the workers own the means of production, it says nothing about how the economy is organized other than it be organzied for the benefit of those that actually generate the wealth. And there are so many different ways in which that can be done other than communism.
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@sysbofh Considering that it's never actually been tried, and that capitalism has massive flaws as well, I don't know how anybody can claim to have that level of confidence. In the long run, everything will eventually lead to socialism just because that's the only way for there to be permanent stability over the system. Capitalism inevitably winds up with massive corruption and dictatorship, socialism doesn't. However, not all socialist systems are the same and not all of them work.
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@nonyabisness6306 Yes, and it blows people's mind that Marx's version of socialism is more capitalist than what the US currently has.
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Not necessarily, it also appeals to the most productive people who are sick of seeing leaches fattening themselves at our expense. It's a stereotype that the least productive like collectivism when really it's in the best interests of virtually everybody except the elites. There are many ways in which collectivist economies can be organized and it's not an all or nothing either, they can be a little bit collectivist or a lot.
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@StupidAnon-gn8ih No, not even remotely true. Socialism is just the idea that the workers should own the means of production and have a say in how the spoils are divided. It says nothing about how the government should be organized. (Although some form of democracy or republic is most consistent with the people retaining control over things)
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@anonygent No capitalism rewards the ability to rig the system in your favor, not effort. It's why the richest Americans are also the laziest. Or do you really think that Bezos, Musk and Buffet are really many thousands of times harder working than those folks in the back of house at the local restaurant? Socialism is just the notion that the workers should benefit from their work rather than 3rd parties. There are many different ways in which that can happen. Not all socialist situations require that everybody receive the same amount of money or be allowed to leach off everybody else.
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@GoogleAreEnemyCombatants That's not socialism, that's communism. When workers own the means of production, one option is that everybody gets the same amount out. Another is that people get out in proportion to what they need. Those tend to run afoul of human nature to a large extent, and I fail to see why they'd work better in the future. But, there are other options, such as factoring in both need and the degree to which you're contributing. Everybody gets enough to get their basic needs met, but beyond that, people get a larger increase of the surplus for contributing more. Or allowing people to give back some of what they've received as an investment in the system that pays some form of dividend in the future from some of the surplus resources after providing for everybody. Both of those are still socialism, but they're not at all what people think of as being socialism thanks to the degree to which fascists have been allowed to propagandize.
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@beetle3088 They are, you can have authoritarian socialism and you an have authoritarian capitalism. They are on separate axis.
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Socialism is a weird spelling for capitalism. The most ignorant people about this are virtually always pro-capitalist.
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@TheFredmac On what basis? You think that profit just disappears because it no longer gets leached out of the company to unproductive investors? Where do you think that wealth comes from in the first place? Wealth inevitably floats to the top in the absence of something to stop it from doing so. It happened in the USSR and it happens in North Korea.
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@heliumcalcium396 Then what of the people that are so ignorant that they think that unfettered capitalism is any better? Even Adam Smith was smart enough to see that Capitalism without some safeguards would inevitably result in a single source monopoly over everything eventually.
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@StupidAnon-gn8ih Without something in place, capitalism always ends in authoritarianism as the economic power eventually consolidates into the hands of so few people that nobody else has much of a say. It's already happened in the US where what the people vote for doesn't typically happen unless the elites consent to it. And it's just going to get worse and worse from this point forward if nothing is done to stop it.
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@frishter That's misleading, the reason for that is that those Capitalist countries have extracted so much from those other countries that those other countries can't provide a decent standard of living for the people living there. Socialism does work, if you actually bother to read what Marx actually said, versus all the BS that's been put out by fascists. The only difference between Marx's version of socialism and capitalism is that under Marx's socialism, the workers own the means of production. That's it. There's no requirement that everybody make the same amount of money and no requirement that everybody live in holes and have no possessions. Marx himself marveled at what capitalism was able to achieve, his issue was that workers are not just machines to be used until broken down and used up.
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@anonygent There's no evidence to support that either. They're better at rigging the system in their favor. How does inheriting a boatload of money make them smarter? For every one Warren Buffet, you've got numerous Gateses and Musks that came from wealth and could take advantage of opportunities that the rest of us couldn't. They then engaged in all sorts of morally and legally questionable shenanigans to amass massive wealth. These people didn't earn it, they stole it with their parents money.
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@GoogleAreEnemyCombatants So, you're just not educated. Got it. Communism and Socialism are not the same thing. It's not a word game, it is a very important detail. Communism is just one form of socialism.
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@andrewcarlson2178 Becoming a millionaire plumber these days is pretty "easy." As long as you don't mind doing the work that most others won't or showing up in the middle of the night for emergencies.
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