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[–] 3 points 4 months ago (4 children)

so strictly speaking socialism is a central planned economy with various ideals deciding who makes the plans. Thats what most people think of with communism. Many folks now a days though will use the term to mean a social democracy which generally looks for the state to run important things that everyone needs or if more individual choice is needed then maybe subsidises it. It collects taxes and regulates but otherwise lets unimportant things be run by private groups. It looks to have a floor to peoples quality of life that it does not go below and to encourage an overall high quality of life for the populace.

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  • [–] 3 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (3 children)

    That's not true at all, socialism is just worker ownership of the means of production and not related to centrally planned economies. Lookup market socialism for a counterexample.

    Socialism - any system of government where the workers own the means of production. This has nothing to do with welfare or healthcare or any of that, just that the working class owns the factories and other private property. (The marxist and original definition of private property is property that generates capital, not your toothbrush, which is personal property. Same with your home.)

    communism - a post socialist system where the workers own the means of production, currency has been abolished, there are no class divisions or state (note the marxist concept of the state is probably not what you're thinking if this is new to you.)

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  • [–] 1 point 4 months ago (2 children)

    marx was not the first just the most well defined but his things came from philosophers before him. This is why the time period and who are talking to is important.

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  • [–] 1 point 4 months ago (1 child)

    yes, but none of them use your definitions, those are colloquial ones not used by any communist philosophers.

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  • [–] 1 point 4 months ago

    and again im not talking just communists. its how they like to talk about it and that is why who you are talking about. im thinking in terms of earlier utopian philosophies. similarly many people today say socialism when they basically mean european "ideal" (since so many still fall short) style social democracy

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