YOU'VE READ THE LIE that socialism would result in the loss of individual liberty; that all power would be surrendered to the state or the government, and a harsh bureaucracy would regulate our lives and enforce blind obedience.
THE FACT IS that socialism rejects the state! Socialists hold with Karl Marx that "The existence of the state is inseparable from the existence of slavery." How then, in the name of common sense, could socialists wish to glorify the state and surrender to it? On the contrary - where there is socialism, there can be no state, and where there is a state, there can be no socialism.
YOU'VE READ THE LIE that socialism means nationalisation, or government ownership and control of industry.
THE FACT IS that socialism rejects nationalisation or government ownership of industry! Government ownership, government control, are long-standing feature of capitalism - viz., post offices, sanitation, transportation systems, etc. Government ownership is the bureaucratic management of industries that have outgrown management by individual capitalists or combinations of capitalists. For the workers, government ownership is merely a change of masters - it brings no solution to their problems. Socialism is not a mere change of masters. Socialism means complete control of their machines and products by the workers. It guarantees this by placing the factories, the mines, the railroads, the land - all social wealth - under social ownership and control. Not a state, not the capitalists, not a bureaucracy, but the people collectively own, control, and democratically manage the means to produce and distribute all social wealth under socialism.
YOU'VE READ THE LIE that Russia was socialist.
THE FACT IS that socialism has never been established in any country on earth! Russia was not a capitalist nation, but a despotic, brutal one-party state-capitalist country. There is exploitation of the workers under a wage system - ruthless exploitation. There is a privileged ruling class in Russia - a bureaucracy that is domineering and all-powerful.
YOU'VE READ THE LIE that socialism would destroy incentive, enforce an equality of poverty - and that it just won't work.
THE FACT IS that socialism would broaden and stimulate incentive, offer an equality of opportunity with abundance for all, and work with less friction than any social system ever conceived by man. Capitalism offers incentives to capitalists, incentives that is stimulated or discouraged by the chance of making or not making a profit. Socialism would offer incentives to all. Instead of fearing the loss of their jobs as a result of improved methods of production, workers would know that every such improvement would mean more leisure and more of the good things of life. Thus, socialism would give an unprecedented impetus to offer incentives on the part of all the members of a free society. Capitalism keeps the workers on the ragged edge of pauperism, by forcing them to keep their noses to the grindstone in order to eke out a bare existence. Socialism would offer an equality of opportunity under which each worker would become the architect of his own future. Capitalism functions so badly that increased production spells war or depression. When capitalists cannot profitably dispose of the wealth of which they despoil the workers, factories close and unemployment mounts. In order to avoid such depressions at home, capitalists seek foreign markets. The competition for such markets leads inevitably to war. Socialism would function smoothly because socialist production would be carried on for use, and not for sale and private profit. The anarchy of capitalist production would be replaced by socialist cooperation, based on the principle that each worker should receive the equivalent of the full social value of his product.
The question presents itself: who invents and circulates these lies? The answer is: the capitalist class, its spokesmen, and representatives. They have a stake, a vested interest, in the capitalist system. They could not, if they would, give a disinterested appraisal of socialism, or tell the truth about it. Are you one of the millions who entertain false and distorted concepts about socialism? If you are, then surely, if only in fairness to yourself, not to mention the momentous issues at stake, you will want to get the facts straight. Socialism is one of the most lied-about and misrepresented words in common usage today. Many believe that it means state-ownership or state bureaucratic control of business. Socialism has never existed, nor does it now exist anywhere in the world. Socialism cannot be handed to you by "leaders." Socialism cannot come a little at a time, or in one small locality at a time by government decree or otherwise. Socialism does not mean a lowering of anyone's standard of living to one common level, as you have been told by countless times.