Socialism Vs Communism

These days, there are a great deal of discussions and debates as for what the best form of government is for our countries. Many people throughout history have their own perceptions of a “perfect” government. From Adam Smith to Karl Marx, we are surrounded by brilliant ideas of running a government. Karl Marx is a famous philosopher who brought the idea of communism—which is simply idea that everyone is equal. In communism, a single authority creates all of the decisions and salaries for each citizen of his state. Another idea branched out from communism: socialism. This idea is very similar to communism, except that parties of people decide for themselves and salaries are based on how long one works. However, this does not turn into

However, not everyone agrees with a single perception and therefore, people have also criticized against socialism and communism. One of the most famous philosophers who was against socialism was Friedrich Hayek. “Friedrich Hayek declared himself convinced that ‘social justice’ is a mirage: an illusory goal whose pursuit, moreover, can only lead to disaster.” (Social Justice: The Hayekian Challenge) George Orwell has presented many pros of socialism that make it seem as if it is the obvious decision. However, Friedrich Hayek has found cons of using socialism in our societies. Hayek was so passionate about denouncing socialism that he created “The Six Claims.” His initial claim was that “social justice [is] entirely empty and meaningless.” (Hayek, 1976, 11) With “The Six Claims” Hayek asserts six major cons of socialism. Basically, he explains how socialism is meaningless and is more of a religion than an idea. He says that it is “ideological” and “disastrous.” A claim brought up is “that an economic system that does not utilize money, financial calculation and market pricing will be unable to effectively value capital goods and coordinate production, and therefore socialism is impossible because it lacks the necessary information to perform economic calculation in the first place.” (Ludwig von Mises) One downside of socialism is that the government appears to have a lot of power at hand, which could easily lead to heavy corruption and abuse. Also, with this structure of government, there is lack of incentive. If one is hard working, investing, creative, and ingenuity, they are not rewarded. If there is no reward for extra hours of work, one would definitely not put in those hours. This then leads to laziness and irresponsibility, which are not punished. The result of this is unmitigated poverty. With this, the only way that the society