Comparison of Socialism and Communism

Essay by Hikage24College, UndergraduateA+, April 2004

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To compare socialism and communism you must first understand the terms and some of their goals. Socialism is a system of social organization in which property and the distribution of income are subject to social control rather than individual determination or market forces. The government owns most of the basic business so that profits can be evenly distributed amongst the people. This case is evident in France where 75% of the communication company France telecom and over 44% of the car company Renault are owned by the government. It's the same for much of Africa as well as the rest of the world. In socialism, private businesses and individuals are taxed steeply to pay for social programs.

These economic systems have some flaws as well as benefits. The major benefit is social equality due to the fact that income is taken from the rich in the form of taxes and given to the poor through government-funded programs.

Free education, health care and childcare are but a few benefits of a socialist government. Workers of this type of economy also receive longer vacation and work fewer hours too.

Some negative components of a socialist economy are as follows. It takes away from business people's incentives to start work early and leave late. Also, in addition to income tax, marginal tax rates were enforced by as much as 85% in some countries. Thus pro-athletes, doctors, and lawyers as well as other people that made tremendous amounts of money were taxed higher than the average citizen. The goal of socialism is social equality, therefore, you discourage hard workers to work as hard as they can. You also have fewer inventions and less innovation throughout the economy because those that have ideas don't receive as many rewards as one would in a capitalist economy.