Here is what Happens in a Socialist Economy.

The first thing that every nation which has embraced socialism does is to take control of all the means of production, since no one can own or control the means of production.

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The answer is a society where the means of production—factories, mines, railroads, the energy sources, all things used to create new wealth—are owned publicly, not privately. And that means socialism—a society where private property has been abolished.
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www.workers.org...

Your family had 100 acres of farm land for which they worked all their lives? It will be taken over by the "government/state" since no one can own and control the means of production.

That supermarket which you grandfather, or your father started and for which they worked their entire lives will be taken under control by the socialist state.

This is what happens to ALL the means of production.

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factories, mines, railroads, the energy sources, all things used to create new wealth
...

www.workers.org...

So, the next thing a socialist regime does is to introduce "price controls."

What this means is that the socialist regime will lower the price of all food, and other products to what the poorest people supposedly can afford.

So, even thou you and your family still work at the supermarket which was previously owned by your family, the state tells you how much you must charge people.

If you pay 50 cents for a can of tuna from your provider, and you used to sell it for $1 dollar to make a profit now the state tells you you must charge people 30 cents.

Since the price you must pay for the tuna can is 50 cents, but the state tells you you must sell it for 30 cents what this means is that you lost money.

After this those people who work in supermarkets, which were previously theirs, must make a decision. Either they buy really bad food for the price control implemented under socialism, or they simply declare bankruptcy and must close the supermarket, or stop working there.

This will happen in every sector of "the means of production."

The next thing that happens is that the value of the money in socialist states inflates for the real bad decisions made by the socialist state to introduce "price controls."

As the money inflates it loses value and the economy of the "socialist nation" tanks.

Since the "socialist regime" already knew that this was going to happen, they also introduce other ways to control what people can buy so as to buy the least amount of products as possible since the socialist economy does not make any profit, except for the rich socialists who still make money by selling oil and make huge profits meanwhile the people starve. This rationing together with the "price controls" causes a lack of products.

In places like Cuba a "libreta" is introduced which states what a family can buy every month if they have the money, and if the products are available.

Even though the money has inflated most people still can't afford food, or other necessities to keep a healthy life. People start eating less and less due to less products being available, or affordable for them to the point that a large majority starts to go hungry or even starve.

Meanwhile "left-wing sources" claim these are the supermarkets for the people, the truth is that only the rich who are part of the socialist/communist dictatorship, or tourists, can afford these prices.

Venezuela

What the left outside of Venzuela thinks regular Venezuelans can buy, but only the rich socialist elites, and tourists can afford.

BTW, the supermarket below is in a "rich socialist neighborhood."



What regular Venezuelans must do to buy food.







Cuba

The supermarkets for the super rich, who are part of the socialist/communsit regime, or for tourists. To buy in these stores you must have CUC, which is reserved for tourists and for the high ranking members of the socialist/communist regime. If a regular Cuban is caught using CUC he she will have that money confiscated, and will have to pay a fine. If caught again that person will spent time in prison plus pay a bigger fine, which they can't afford.



Real "bodegas, farmacies, and stores in Cuba for the regular Cubans" in which you can buy with the regular "Cuban peso."

Because the government, under a socialist economy, can't pay providers of goods the prices asked by providers there is always a lack of basic products for the "regular cubans."

Both Cuba and Venezuela are affected by the "socialist economy."







So you see, despite the lies from "socialists/communists" it isn't capitalists who are to be blamed for what happens in socialist economies, but rather it is socialism which is to be blamed for the lack of products that the regular people need.

a reply to: ElectricUniverse

Are you absolutely blind to the problems with laissez faire capitalism?



People who are cultist capitalist are just as bad as cultist communists!

We may have full shelves but we also have monopolies and cartels out the yin yang.

a reply to: dfnj2015

You don’t fix a headache with a shotgun in the mouth

You DONT fix capitalism with socialism

a reply to: dfnj2015

Keep claiming how bad capitalism is when under socialism and communism MORE people are hungry and suffer.

Under capitalism SOME people can't afford food, but are helped by CAPITALIST charities providing them food.

Under socialism/communism MOST people can't afford food, and there are no SOCIALIST charities helping the people.

You live in a CAPITALIST nation, and if you were to open your fridge you have MORE FOOD than most families in socialist and communist regimes will ever have...

Marx was a MORON who lived off his friends, or the riches of his rich wife, and had debts which he NEVER paid...

So we supposedly have the greatest system in the world, free markets / capitalism. If we have the greatest system in the world, why are there so many people looking towards socialism? Is it simple education? Is it self hate or something like a sadist? We have it so good today that people are looking for a little challenge?

If free markets / capitalism are so good, why are so many people upset and looking for change?

a reply to: Breakthestreak

That's exactly what Marx proposes!

Marx is only seen as communist because he was a paid propagandist for a commune.

His philosophies literally take on social and capital means of production. People should not work as slaves, yet should not be bound to the means of production for other people, he had a vision, and it's hard to dispute, but because it's more of a socialist vision people lose their minds over it.

a reply to: ElectricUniverse

RE: "So, the next thing a socialist regime does is to introduce "price controls." "

This statement kills me. What do you think lobbyists do? Promote the general welfare?

Lobbyists force the politicians to pass laws creating cartels and monopolies in exchange for campaign financing. We have no FREE markets in this country. There is no mechanism to wring out the inefficiencies of exorbitant CEO compensation packages.

What about "wage controls". The Bureau of Labor Statistics is socialism for CEOs to price fix wages. I'm so sick of people like you with your simplistic views of the economy. Here are the facts:



And:

Purchasing Power of the Consumer Dollar

We may have socialism or communism in this country but it's not the kind that benefits the worker making the median wage. On the contrary, the economy does not serve the American worker. The economy enslaves the worker making the median wage! Unfortunately, at least in this country, the facts do not have a liberal bias.

There's just a lot of hate going on Venezuela right now because the government took over the oil industry away from American Big Oil companies and the Billionaires are pissed.

a reply to: dfnj2015

I have always wondered, what exactly is the market for? Is it for the people of a community or is it for the individual to gain as much as they can through any methods they can get a way with?

originally posted by: Breakthestreak
a reply to: dfnj2015

You don’t fix a headache with a shotgun in the mouth

You DONT fix capitalism with socialism

In other words, you don't fix it at all according to you.

You can only fix laissez faire capitalism with public policies that are in the favor of the worker making the median wage. All we have are public policies expressed in laws.

The key word to capitalism is capital. And unless you have a boat load of it you don't get to participate in it. You want to make a million dollars start a business with two million dollars.

Sorry, but you just can't get all energetic and determine to start a business to compete with Home Depot. Dream on though. Because with the American dream you have to be asleep to believe it!

originally posted by: ClovenSky
...
If free markets / capitalism are so good, why are so many people upset and looking for change?

Because for decades socialists and communists have been brainwashing these young people, and these days the "socialist agenda" is part of most Colleges and Universities in the U.S.

However, most of these "useful idiots" have actually never seen, or experienced what really happens under socialism or communism.

a reply to: dfnj2015

And i am sick of people like you who keep wanting to ignore that socialism and communism does not make anything better but makes everything worse...

You want a change to socialism?... MOVE to Venezuela or Cuba and live like a regular Venezuelan or Cuban for a year then come back and try to tell us how wonderful socialism or communism is...

a reply to: ElectricUniverse

Oh don't worry. Marx always said laissez faire capitalism is followed by communism. This is because unfettered greed would result in the government's currency to collapse to nothing in value when too much is accumulated in too few hands. And once the government's currency collapses in value people the breadlines will demand MORE government not less. See you in the breadlines comrades!!!

a reply to: dfnj2015

Come on...you cannot be this naive?

a reply to: ElectricUniverse

But if free markets were the greatest invention ever, how are so many people susceptible to getting rid of the system they grew up in?

Could there possibly be something inherently wrong with free markets?

It doesn't really seem like the oligarchs are really fighting against socialism or free markets, but using it against us to stir up more hate. Just like the phony labels of D & R. Is there even a remote chance that either system leads to failure of equality, producing the same results in the end?

While I hate all of these systems, I live and work my ass off in America.
It kind of works out for me, I guess.

they're all snip systems.

Only the capitalist is willing to admit that some people are worth more than others- but at the same time only the banks currently decide value.

Why do salesmen earn more than engineers?
Why do people who can't make themselves breakfast earn anything?

There are a lot of problems in reality.

Empathy might just be the biggest one.

EMPATHY is the cause of socialism- and communism.

Greed isn't great either- it causes insanity, as seen in the US legal system. Where no person or group can even agree upon of a given action is legal without consulting hundreds of prior rulings.
It also causes things like the stock market- which is ok as a concept until you look at the regulations behind it. That alone could be tweaked to completely eliminate income tax in the US.

a reply to: dfnj2015


People start business's from the ground up every day. Some fail, some succeed. It is all about supply and demand, and the determination of the individual. It happens more often in a capitalistic society, where people have the opportunity to thrive.

a reply to: dfnj2015

It is completely ironic how you want to bash Capitalism, yet your fridge is fuller than most people's who live under socialism or communism.

You, living in the U.S., can say whatever you want about the government, and unless you directly threaten to do harm to anyone in government you won't be punished for criticizing the government.

Yet in socialist/communist regimes if you criticize those governments you get punished, you get labeled "a threat to the collective," your individual rights do not exist, and you are not only oppressed but receive daily beatings and are tortured, or even murdered for disagreeing with socialism, or communism...

But go ahead and keep talking about how bad it is in capitalism, meanwhile you want to preach about the goods of socialism or communism...

originally posted by: ElectricUniverse
a reply to: dfnj2015

And i am sick of people like you who keep wanting to ignore that socialism and communism does not make anything better but makes everything worse...

You want a change to socialism?... MOVE to Venezuela or Cuba and live like a regular Venezuelan or Cuban for a year then come back and try to tell us how wonderful socialism or communism is...

I can't afford to take any vacations. Maybe next year when the price of gasoline returns back to a $1.50 per gallon.

I never said I wanted communism. I said laissez faire capitalism is not as perfect as you think it is. I showed you fact in my previous posts. All you have is opinions. Sorry, money talks, everything you post is BS.

There's a "reason" why you are wrong. And it doesn't have to do with communism. The "real owners" of this country are a much bigger problem than private land ownership going away anytime soon:



The government is run by organized crime. Corporations ARE the government. Sorry, people living on welfare are NOT the problem. The billionaires have enslaved us. In the words of FDR:

"An old English judge once said: 'Necessitous men are not free men.' Liberty requires opportunity to make a living - a living decent according to the standard of the time, a living which gives man not only enough to live by, but something to live for.

For too many of us the political equality we once had won was meaningless in the face of economic inequality. A small group had concentrated into their own hands an almost complete control over other people's property, other people's money, other people's labor - other people's lives. For too many of us life was no longer free; liberty no longer real; men could no longer follow the pursuit of happiness.

Against economic tyranny such as this, the American citizen could appeal only to the organized power of government."

Speech before the 1936 Democratic National Convention

You seem to love the economic tyranny we have with laissez faire capitalism. We now live the new age of the robber barons like nothing the world has ever seen!

"Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power." Benito Mussolini

a reply to: ElectricUniverse

Do you have any disclosure to offer?
Is your source of income threatened by Socialism?
Is Socialism a threat to you, or your loved-ones lives, or lifestyle?
Do you receive any sort of compensation for trumpeting Capitalism, and/or vilifying Socialism?

So what is the real, deep-down reason for your complaint against Socialism?

a reply to: BlueJacket

Just to argue the opposite side for a moment. Does it really matter in the end?

If enough people become despondent from our current system, they will force change. That change won't be from their own choosing, but a pre organized plan generously provided by our oligarchs.

It almost appears that is where the path is going. Back and forth. Back and forth ... while the small responsible honest person losses again.

To say and believe capitalism is the greatest system in the world is great. But when the numbers start going against your utopia, are you going to compromise or ride this # into the ground? If ridden into the ground, you will probably have no say in the rebuild.