Failure of Socialism in the United States
Abstract The purpose of this essay is to examine the reasons for the failure of socialism in the United States. The history of socialism in the United States will be presented and examples of its failures will be given. Next, a series of theories as to why socialism has failed in the United States will be given, and finally, the theories will be applied to discover whether they are valid or not in explaining why socialism has been unsuccessful in the United States.
Introduction
Socialism has been prevalent as a world system for many decades now but has failed to materialize in the United States. What is striking about this is not only our contempt for social and communal policies but our obvious hatred and distrust for those who do use social and communal policies around the world. It goes so deep that we would fight wars against those who consider themselves communist or socialist. Not only are U.S. policies against a more socialist system they are currently disintegrating those social welfare programs in place right now. (Burke 1997: 400-407) To understand these issues we must understand the meanings of these various systems. Socialism is defined as a system based on public ownership of the means of production and distribution of wealth. (Marrium-Webster 2005) This is not to be confused with communism, which will also be addressed in the coming paragraphs. Communism is an economic or political system based on the sharing of all work and property by the whole community. (Marrium-Webster 2005) However, unlike socialism the means of production are owned by the government not the society as a whole. The United States has always been a capitalist country with some socialist policies. Capitalism is an economic system in which the means of production are privately owned and controlled and it is characterized by competition and the profit motive. (Marrium-Webster 2005) However, the socialist policies, mentioned above, have generally benefited the
Introduction
Socialism has been prevalent as a world system for many decades now but has failed to materialize in the United States. What is striking about this is not only our contempt for social and communal policies but our obvious hatred and distrust for those who do use social and communal policies around the world. It goes so deep that we would fight wars against those who consider themselves communist or socialist. Not only are U.S. policies against a more socialist system they are currently disintegrating those social welfare programs in place right now. (Burke 1997: 400-407) To understand these issues we must understand the meanings of these various systems. Socialism is defined as a system based on public ownership of the means of production and distribution of wealth. (Marrium-Webster 2005) This is not to be confused with communism, which will also be addressed in the coming paragraphs. Communism is an economic or political system based on the sharing of all work and property by the whole community. (Marrium-Webster 2005) However, unlike socialism the means of production are owned by the government not the society as a whole. The United States has always been a capitalist country with some socialist policies. Capitalism is an economic system in which the means of production are privately owned and controlled and it is characterized by competition and the profit motive. (Marrium-Webster 2005) However, the socialist policies, mentioned above, have generally benefited the