Socialism and others

[zkulpa@zmit1.ippt.gov.pl (Zenon Kulpa)]

> From kgstar@most.fw.hac.com Wed Jul 24 17:51:53 1996
> 
> >Yes.
> >For me it sounds as more convincing reason (plus socialism, of course...).
> >
> >-- Zenon
> 
> Socialism saying everyone should be rewarded equally regardless of effort
> or investment.  Greed saying, I don't want to lose out and I want some of
> whatever you get.
> 
Nice to hear that at least some Americans know what socialism means ;-))
Unfortunately, from my contacts with a number of them Americans,
and from observing the evolution of US social and political system
it seems that you are a minority (and threatened by extinction)...

Here goes some amusing characterization of various political systems
I have found recently on Objectivists pages:

=======================================

                            Politics Made Simple
                            --------------------
Do you have trouble understanding politics? 
If so, the following primer (thanks to the Manitoban 
of the University of Manitoba) should clear it up for you. 
No bull.

Socialism: You have two cows. Give one to your neighbour.

Communism: You have two cows. Give both to the government. 
           The government gives you milk.

Capitalism: You sell one cow and buy a bull.

Facism: You have two cows. Give milk to the government. 
        The government sells it.

Nazism: The government shoots you and takes the cows.

New Dealism: The government shoots one cow, milks the other, 
             and pours the milk down the sink.

Anarchism: Keep the cows. Steal another one. Shoot the government.

Conservatism: Freeze the milk. Embalm the cows.

Liberalism: Give away one cow. Get the government to give you a new cow.
            Now give them both away.

=======================================

FURTHER NOTES (by Zenon):

The characterization of Socialism above presents 
its rather soft, theoretical version.
The more real-life version (from my personal experience)
would be:


Socialism: You have two cows. The government takes one and says 
           that it will give the cow to your neighbour.


There was a popular saying in Poland some time ago:
"When The Party says that it will give us something, 
 then it certainly says that."

Similar with Communism. It should be rather:


Communism: You have two cows. The government takes both, 
           and gives you one-tenth of the skimmed milk.
           The rest goes to support the worldwide revolution.


Note also, that what you Americans call Liberalism
is called Socialdemocracy in Europe.
It is Socialism pretending to be not,
and concealing the socialist doings by
very intricate "democratic" (in fact, bureaucratic) procedures.
Something we have now in Poland, though mixed more and more with
the so-called "Capitalismo", missing from the list above
(see e.g. Brasil and several other South- and Central-American states).
It can be characterized as follows:


Capitalismo: You have two cows. You sell one and spend all the money
             for bribing officials to get a permit to buy a bull.
             Having now no money to buy one, you borrow bull's services
             on black market. You then sell the calf and use all the money
             to bribe officials for not prosecuting you for
             the illegal use of the bull...


Enjoy and learn ;-)

-- Zenon