The Soul of Man under Socialism

http://libcom.org/library/soul-of-man-under-socialism-oscar-wilde

by kwhitefoot • 12 years ago

22 18 12 years ago

greatdox6• 12 years ago

Socialism always works by over taxing people to pay for the social programs. It can be soul crushing and job destroying.

Socialism is like the diet version of communism.

Crony Capitalism or Corporatism is what we currently have in the USA. It uses Socialism to make organizations that lobby the government very rich at the expense of the people who are tax payers. Both Democrats and Republicans use that system to get rich. Both should be hanged for doing that at the expense of the tax payers.

olalonde3• 12 years ago

Have you even read the first paragraph? This text describes a libertarian socialist society which is presumably devoid of taxation: "What is needed is Individualism. If the Socialism is Authoritarian; if there are Governments armed with economic power as they are now with political power; if, in a word, we are to have Industrial Tyrannies, then the last state of man will be worse than the first.". I personally found the text interesting apart from all those references to Jesus Christ and not really addressing the "free rider problem" (which is not surprising given it was written pre-1900).

greatdox6• 12 years ago

I find it hard to believe you can have socialism without taxation.

kwhitefoot• 12 years ago

My goodness, these comments aren't what I was expecting. I posted it because it resonated with me while reading Charlie Stross's rant about George Osborne, A Nation of Slaves: http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2014/04/a-nation....

Not sure if I can articulate the connection it certainly had nothing to do directly with taxation, economics, or libertarian 'philosophy'.

But on the other hand I think Wilde would at least approve of you on the grounds that some of you at least seem to be thinking for yourselves. :-)

loceng2• 12 years ago

People who don't understand the benefits of socialism are stuck in a fear-driven scarcity-mind, and so it's difficult for a mind shaped one way to grasp another way - though I believe it's possible with the right exposure and education. I've been exploring ideas relating to abundance on my blog occasionally - http://mattamyers.tumblr.com/ - latest post is "Profit Has No Inherent Value" at http://mattamyers.tumblr.com/post/78764544562/profit-has-no-...

The Soul of Man under Socialism

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