Socialism Is An Unsuccessful Form Of Government
Socialism is a way of government that is highly controversial, however it also spread faster and farther than any religion ever did. One of the earliest socialist experiments was New Harmony which was founded by Robert Owen. Joint sessions of congress formed to hear Owen’s ideas and as a result, the town was built up on 30,000 acres of land. The town had many principals and rules for the citizens to live by, such as, the people couldn’t be publically drunk, they put more emphasis on spending time with family. Goods such as food or clothing were handed out at the village store, people got what they needed here. This experiment failed after two years and had many claiming that it was simply a large, isolated group of thinkers and not enough doers. Owen blamed the failure on “poor human material for his experiment” Owen did, however, continue his work in socialism. Owen and his followers created gathering places that resembled churches where they would conduct meetings, give lectures, and sing hymns about socialism.
Socialism can be boiled down to several characteristics which have been repeated in each instance where socialism is tried out; everyone is equal, the workers are the backbone, there is always a large amount of the population suffering in some way, etc. The problem with everyone being equal in a socialistic society is that one person could have worked hard in harsh conditions for many hours and get paid one sum, while another may have slacked off and done little to nothing while getting paid the same amount. As supported by this, the workers of the society hold the whole thing up, they support the rich, the higher ups, while they reap the benefits of the workers labor. Many philosophers would argue that socialism was inevitable, and in some ways they are right because so many nations have attempted to incorporate socialism into their daily lives.
One of the most well known nations is Russia. In 1917 a new political group seized power, bringing with them the age of the “red terror” as it would come to be called. The previous leaders family would be massacred, much of the population banished and sent to labor camps for disagreeing, and violent radicals were executed. By 1920 all civil society had stopped and the economy fell apart.
Socialism, while affecting the countries that try and implement it, also affects the rest of the world. For example is there is an export that one country relies on another country to provide for them and that country is in a state of ruin due to socialism, the original country could be out of an important good and be forced to either do without of find it elsewhere. Not to mention how this affects the world's economy in such a negative way, a country ruined by socialism throws off the whole balance.
In my opinion I feel that socialism can never be a successful form of government, it can never satisfy the majority and meet the needs that it claims to. As comes with human nature, people want to feel independent, they want to provide for their family themselves without the government dictating or interfering with that. As proven through various events through history, such as China where over 30 million lives were lost in the chaos of socialism, it will only end up doing more harm than good.
