most misused theory of all time: socialism. The word is thrown around in popular culture

and political discourse as both a pejorative and a compliment. But how can the same system

be behind both the Nazi Party and Finland’s world-class education system? What exactly

is Socialism?

Well, in it’s most simple form, socialism is when a population collectively owns and

controls the means of production, and distributes the end result proportionally. In practice,

however, control is usually delegated to the state. While the distribution usually comes

in the form of underlying social welfare to satisfy everyone’s basic needs, like housing,

education, and health care. The end-all purpose is to guarantee a level playing field for

members in a society, thereby removing class distinctions based on ownership.

For example: in the US’s capitalist society, high quality education is expensive, meaning

that those who can afford it are generally given better opportunities. Those who can’t

are forced to compete at a material disadvantage. This leads to class inequality, not on the

basis of talent or ability, but on generational wealth. By comparison, in countries like Finland,

where high quality education is free, everyone is given the same opportunity to succeed or

fail, regardless of their financial status. If that sounds a bit idealistic, that’s

because it is supposed to. Early socialism was predicated on the idea that if we could

eliminate classes and have true, societal equality, it would be a utopia. In fact, the

earliest modern form of socialism was called “utopian socialism”.

It’s important to note that there are no 100% socialist countries, but rather, different

socio-economic systems with socialist undertones. Even the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics,

which literally has the word “socialist” in the name, has been called a far cry from

“real socialism”. The same is true of the Nordic countries, which employ socialist

programs combined with a capitalist economy.

But so, why are the Nordic countries doing so well, while Russia is still recovering?

Well, like any political system, socialism has a countless number of variations. The

two most dominant are Social Democracy, as practiced by Sweden and Bernie Sanders. And

the Marxism-Leninism form of socialism, used by the Soviet Union, China, and Cuba. Social

Democracy generally prioritizes improving quality of life through equal rights and opportunities,

bolstered by a state-run welfare system and on top of a capitalist economy.. On the other

hand, Marxism-Leninism prioritizes the infallibility of its dictatorship government. The rationale

is that any benefit to the state would also be a benefit for the people. However, in practice

this has meant that the ruling party can massively depreciate the population’s standard of

living for the “good of the state”. Although both strive for similar utopian socialist

goals, the way they approach them is very different.

These examples show that socialism (along with it’s logical extreme, communism) may

be backed by rational theory, but requires rational practice to go along with it. Social

democracies make up the happiest countries in the world. Other socialist-leaning countries

like China and Cuba suffer from terrible human rights abuses, like modern slavery and censorship.

Maybe the best takeaway is not to trust anyone using the word “socialism” to describe

radically different political theories. Just because “salad” is in the name doesn’t

make fruit salad, potato salad, and Caesar salad the same thing.

If you’d like to learn more about Libertarianism, Anarchy and other political ideologies, check

out our full playlist here starting with Communism. That links in the description below. Thanks

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