The very nature of private ownership of the means of production creates incredible amounts of stress for people living under capitalist regimes. Everyone lives in daily terror of losing their job. Losing your source of income means that you are no longer able to meet your basic needs such as housing, food, and healthcare. The anxiety about job security and debt accumulation is something that’s constantly at the back of everyone’s minds. Additionally, many capitalist nations do not have guaranteed retirement, shifting the burden of retirement savings onto individuals, leading to worries about financial security in old age.
These are the kinds of worries that people living in socialist societies, such as the USSR, could not even begin to comprehend. USSR implemented policies of guaranteed employment, universal healthcare, free housing, and comprehensive social welfare programs. These measures provided citizens with a sense of security and dignity, removing a whole class of anxieties associated with meeting basic needs. It’s also worth noting that historical examples such as Hungary and contemporary models like China demonstrate that socialist principles can be combined with market economics addressing the main criticism of USSR style economy.
To sum up, capitalist relations introduce unique stressors related to meeting basic needs, which socialist societies address through systemic guarantees, thereby ensuring true freedoms for the people. These guarantees liberate the working class from the constant worry of survival, creating a society where human dignity and well-being are prioritized.
No problem! I think this issue of untangling the idealist notions of a “true Socialism” as they exist in (mostly) the West is a big part of why there are so many nominally Socialist people who never studied Historical or Dialectical Materialism, so they repeat the analytical mistakes of the mechanical Materialists or the metaphysical Matetialists. They feel like simply labeling a system Socialist means it must be devoid of problems. Ultimately, I think this is the current largest wedge between Lemmy anti-Marxists and Marxists.
Absolutely, the goal isn’t to create some Platonic ideal of a society, it’s to make tangible material improvements and iterate on that. That’s really what dialectical materialism is all about. It’s a scientifically minded approach to improving society where we try things, see how they work out, and iterate on that.
Yep! We are aligned on that. I’ve seen many of these misconceptions coming from the anti-communist communities that claim to be leftist in nature, so I wanted to piggyback off your post. Rather than trying to just scoff at these people, I do think it’s productive to address the root cause of these misconceptions honestly, as these are very common. Logical errors like treating Socialism as some uniquely holy or pure phase of Human enlightenment, rather than the next logical stage in development, makes a mockery of Socialists over the centuries who have already hashed out these conversations.
I very much agree!