Socialism and Society

The advent of socialism on European politics and life has shown that there has been some increased awareness about other modes of living chiefly one that is not extravagant. The way that politics is moving today one can see that the idea of being true to some philosophical meaning behind this social-political phenomenon is an ideal; socialism as we know it with politicians involved in corrupt at political manoeuvres has tainted both socialist and non-socialist parties in recent times. 

  There are also stereotypes that left-wingers are dressed in rags and bent on bringing down the affluent and rich at their expense. Critics of socialist politics equate present day politics exemplary of what Marx had intended when there have various forms of socialism throughout Europe since Marx as each socialist oriented group tried to see itself as a legitimate successor of what was intended in the eighteen hundreds.Unfortunately socialist minded people party platforms have not spread where pundits wanted it  to go but oddly enough similarities can be found between conservative minded establishments in western societies and socialist ways of thinking to be stated later.

Fast forward to the new millennium and critics of Obama’s health reforms equate him to bringing communism to the states. Critics of socialized medicine do not think of the benefits of socialized medicine and that medicine that would be available to millions of Americans that cannot afford prescription drugs, they think of having to be forced into a system where they would have to forfeit contributions for the greater good of the poorer population.

There are stigmas associated to being socialist such as not being productive, being a parasite to the state and being dressed in rags.Socialists wear any kind of clothing and clothing never makes the person just as plenty of rich people dress simply. Stigmas may originate from the mouth of a Texan oil magnate or out of any narrow minded individual who does not believe in the distribution of wealth between classes or who thinks that going on welfare is something that could be avoided for people who have become incapacitated and unable to be as productive as their healthier employed colleagues.

The issue for socialists today is how to carry party platforms that appeal to the older populations and to the youth, who will eventually become older. Appealing to one age group would be a no-no for any socio-political group looking for popularity. In conservative democracies there is what can be considered as socialistic characteristics, unwillingness to promote free trade for products coming into their country and so certain protectionism arises. Protectionism was an element that occurred in the US. for fear that foreign goods would fill their market and cause rampant unemployment. Protectionist attitudes still occur when America wants to take advantage of cheaper goods that it can access without losing their economic superiority.

Oddly enough the markets that eventually produced goods that found their routes to the US were founded largely by American dollars invested abroad. The establishment of those markets were and are a practice among modern capitalist and to a lesser degree socialist societies that concentrated more on developing their domestic product.

The bureaucracy, which came to be associated to socialist governments, tended to be heavy and unproductive, for countries such as the late Soviet Union where there were tiers of bureaucrats each being responsible to the next. The cost of operating such a socialist regime was too high. Some consider communism as a form of socialism but it can also be considered as an extreme left form of socialism: for original Marxists, the term socialism referred to a transitional state between being capitalistic and therefore exploitative of the working masses and having a classless society where everything is shared and there is no private ownership. But when one was able to see that although certain party people did not own certain ‘nationalized’ companies yet became wealthy during their management, opponents to these socialist regimes began to see behind the facade of equality of the masses.