This article sheds light on the dark side of socialism and shows the ugly truth behind this economic system. Socialism is an ideology tailored to improve equality in the community by letting the people own the means of production. Ideal socialism is a picture of a truly sharing society. Construct of this framework requires the government to own the means of production and businesses partly or wholly. Socialism’s goal is to keep everyone happy by narrowing the rich-poor gap and eradicating the ‘class’ system. Socialism develops a ‘too good to be true’ scenario which ends up with the ideology having many loopholes in it. The first and foremost criticism is the incentive to work. Socialism focuses on equality in society and therefore, everyone is working the same hours as the other which earns them equal pay, hence, there is no motivation or incentive to work more. In a capitalistic regime, anyone who outworks the other can get
more money or even promotions because they worked harder, they have ambition as a result of certain motivators and they are afraid to do mediocre work because of the fear of getting fired. As there is no motivation or incentive for someone who is excelling at something or achieving new heights, the scope of new innovation and invention in this community is a fluke. Capitalism may be exploitative, but socialism is just promoting universal mediocrity and inefficiency[1]. It is argued that if the state gets too generous with the freebies it’s providing, it could create an obstruction to steer people away from getting a job and providing for the country, this a poverty trap. Another con of socialism is the nationalization of industries. The Nationalization of industries has the potential to destroy the production of a sector as no government can handle thousands of industries efficiently. The government by undertaking excessive responsibility on its shoulders abets inefficiency and corruption in the society. On the contrary, if the capitalist framework is blended with the socialist regime and the industries were to be divided in between the public and the private in which the public owning the majority share, that could help a suffering country and mend the economic situation. One of the prime examples of this critique is the country of Venezuela in South
America. Venezuela’s dictators Hugo Chavez and Nicolas Maduro robbed 6 million hectares of land from 1999-2016 for the nationalization of the agricultural industry. He wanted to reduce poverty by giving the land from the rich to the poor. As economic theory predicted, as state control of the agricultural industry increased, Venezuela’s food production fell 75% in two decades while the country’s population increased by 33%[1]. After miserably failing with the agriculture industry, to save the country, they nationalized electricity, water, oil, banks, supermarkets, construction, and other crucial sectors and unfortunately ended up making the situation worse.
Some other disadvantages of abiding by this ideology for a country are:
- An increase in the Tax rate could result in the wealthy and professionals leaving the socialist country to find solace in a country with fewer tax rates which only results in depletion of the country’s resources- its minds. This kind of loss of influential and bright people is known as Brain Drain.
- The economic growth is comparably gradual- Since the government is handling so many businesses at once, the efficiency and optimal speed do not keep up with other countries.
- The ideology of socialism has the potential of becoming a successful structure only if there is no corruption in the regime which is highly unlikely because of basic predatory human nature.
In conclusion, the idea of socialism is very ambitious and innocent and therefore, the loopholes are endless because of the corrupt minds of humans. In order to really maintain peace and harmony in a country, it should practice a mixed economy as it is helping a lot of developing and developed countries to navigate through the future path. Socialism in its purest form is like a toddler- a pure soul who does not understand the adversities of life and impurities of mortals.
[1] Martino, Daniel Di. “How Socialism Destroyed Venezuela” March 21, 2019.
https://economics21.org/how-socialism-destroyed-venezuela
[1] Dickinson, H. D. (1971). Economics of socialism. Books f. Libr. P. p.12
[1] Cohen, G. A. (2009). Why not socialism?. Princeton University Press. p.29
Aishwarya Says:
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