Essay Example - The Benefits of the Socialist System to the State

Gilabert and O'Neil (2019) defined socialism as a political governance system in which the political and economic distribution of factors of production is done to facilitate equity amongst citizens of the state. Examples of such factors of production include but are not limited to tools, machines, factories, and agricultural land. Ultimately, socialism aims at ensuring that the production of goods and services that are needed by people are collectively owned. Common ownership of production factors assures all citizens of equality in access to goods and services owing to price discrimination absence as all goods and services are provided for by the government. Owing to the equitable distribution of production resources offered by a socialist system, fairness and justice are deemed to be attainable for citizens in a country governed by socialist laws. This paper explores the question of whether socialist systems can work in today's world and if some countries can benefit from a socialist system.

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The question as to whether socialism is applicable in the modern world is effectively answered by Socialist Countries 2020 (2019) which gives a list of already functional and successful world economies that are under the socialist system. These include The Soviet Union, Germany, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden. Current Affairs (2019) backs the claims presented by Socialist Countries 2020 (2019) when they added that these same nations are renowned for their robust social systems. As such, employees belong to unions, the government provides education to all affordably, and the public welfare of the citizenry is catered to by a common pool of funds by the government. That notwithstanding, it is worth noting that a complete socialist economy does not exist as yet since all these nations have a blend of socialist and other forms of governance systems such as capitalism (Socialist Countries 2020, 2019).

Despite the fact that no nation on earth is a purely socialist system 100%, the countries that have applied principles of socialist systems to their governance structure are presented with various benefits. Accordingly, Lievesley (2017) acknowledges the tested fact that socialist regimes provide equal access to essential services such as healthcare, education, and transportation. In addition to that, all resources are preserved and evenly distributed among the populous for the benefit of all. Amadeo (2020) added that socialist systems are effective in the sense that they facilitate production in a non-exploitative manner. As opposed to capitalism where production factors are privately owned, a socialist system distributes work and wages evenly among the population to ensure that all members of the community benefit. Moreover, workers have rights of choice such as working in their areas of expertise to provide meaningful output (Lievesley, 2017).

Furthermore, workers in a socialist system enjoy the benefit of gaining extra pay when they volunteer to work on jobs that are regarded as high risk or hazardous. For this reason, the bargaining power of the employee in a socialist system is deemed to be superior to say a capitalist system. As such, the employee is capable of securing the individual interests as the government works to evenly distribute the burden of work as well as level the compensation due for similar job categories without discrimination (Lievesley, 2017). Consequently, the socialist system encourages employees to earn through their input as it promotes hard work. To gain more compensation, for instance, employees have the option of working long shifts or taking on more responsibilities to earn more (Amadeo, 2020). Amadeo (2020) also showed appreciation for the collective responsibility that socialism provides in the form of care for the elderly, orphans, and the poor of the society who cannot fend for themselves as they are catered to by the government.

On the downside, however, a socialist system of governance has been pointed out to encourage laziness and is more prone to corruption and manipulation by selfish leaders. It encourages laziness since all people are equal and, thus, individual effort does not make one richer than the other. In a capitalist system, however, the rich can use their wealth to acquire more wealth through the generation of more income for themselves (Chief, 2019). That, however, is not permissible in a socialist system. Additionally, competition in a socialist system is non-existent as people are lazy to show prowess leading to the slow pace of innovation and creativity. Chief (2019) added that because the government runs all the resources on behalf of the people, corruption, nepotism, and mismanagement are likely to plague socialist systems when rogue and unprincipled leaders ascend to power positions in government.

In conclusion, the current state of the world has a few cases of governance in countries where socialism is practiced. However, the findings presented indicate that a pure system of socialism has not yet been attained as a reliable system of governance. Instead, a blend of socialist and capitalist systems is used in most nations of the world to run their affairs and meet the needs of the people. That notwithstanding, the various benefits that can accrue to a nation that is purely run of socialist principles promises to provide security in the equity of resource distribution as well as dispensation of justice and fairness. Nonetheless, the risk of mismanagement is high in a socialist system as it all depends on the attitudes and principles of the leaders who control the government in a socialist country as discussed.

References

Amadeo, K. (2020, January 31). Socialism's Pros and Cons. Retrieved from https://www.thebalance.com/socialism-types-pros-cons-examples-3305592Chief, E. in. (2019). 15 Democratic Socialism Pros and Cons. Retrieved from https://vittana.org/15-democratic-socialism-pros-and-cons

Current Affairs, N. W. (2019, December). The Data Show That Socialism Works. Current Affairs. Retrieved from https://www.currentaffairs.org/2019/12/the-data-show-that-socialism-works

Gilabert, P., & O'Neill, M. (2019, July 15). Socialism. Retrieved from https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/socialism/Lievesley, H. (2017). Why Socialism Works. Independently Published.

Socialist Countries 2020. (2019, November 6). Retrieved from http://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/socialist-countries/