How does Socialism deal with Human Selfishness?

[Captain Adverse]

I DID respond, by making the distinction between GREED AND WILL.

As I get older and acquire more wisdom I find myself turning away from the Cynical musings I was once known for.

As it turns out , Knowledge and the abillity to discern whether its relevent, is the cure for " grumpy old man" disease.

Capitalism takes into account human WILL. There is a huge difference between greed and will, the distinction that makes us human, is that we have the choice to not be greedy and the WILL to act on our decision.

Socialism is for the intelectually bereft and the weak of character......period.

Sorry, I did not see your second response. Like the one above you somehow doubled the same response twice so I did not notice the difference initially.

I agree with your point underlined above. However I note that it seems to be the will of most men to act selfishly. BY that I mean focusing on themselves and only those they feel depend on them directly (spouse, children, etc.). It's not necessarily a bad thing to have such a focused concern.

Still, it's hard to explain how 1% of the worlds population can control 80% of the worlds wealth and not be considered "greedy." The funny thing is how so many working class poor side with these wealthy people in supporting their wealthy lifestyles. Especially when most of these same wealthy people couldn't care less about the people they pay so poorly and keep ripping off.

I don't mind people getting wealthy. That's not my point. In fact, facing the reality of capitalism I am asking socialist's to explain how they can convince selfish people to act more altruistically. Seriously, when even the working poor who actually use food stamps and medicaid (about 48 million adults and 37 million of their children) still rail against social welfare programs as if they were partners with the wealthy class.

 

[Captain Adverse]

Then what does Walmart manufacture itself overseas that they could manufacture here? I have never seen anything that indicates that Walmart produces any of the goods it sells.

Wal-Mart does not own any factories. What they have are 6,000 overseas suppliers who are contracted to sell ONLY to Wal-Mart, 80% of them in China. The rest are in India, Bangladesh, Indonesia, The Philippines, etc. Wal-Mart sets the requirements and these contract factories do exactly what Wal-Mart requires at the prices Wal-Mart decides it's willing to pay. Good business for Wal-Mart, China, and low-wage consumers; bad business for our economy.

 

[Fisher]

Wal-Mart does not own any factories. What they have are 6,000 overseas suppliers who are contracted to sell ONLY to Wal-Mart, 80% of them in China. The rest are in India, Bangladesh, Indonesia, The Philippines, etc. Wal-Mart sets the requirements and these contract factories do exactly what Wal-Mart requires at the prices Wal-Mart decides it's willing to pay. Good business for Wal-Mart, China, and low-wage consumers; bad business for our economy.

They more or less do the same thing with domestic suppliers without the exclusivity clause. If an American company is willing to sell to Walmart at prices that are at their cost or for a loss just to be on Walmart's shelves, then that is the fault of the suppliers, not Walmart. If people stopped selling to them, they would change their practices when profits started falling because people would rather have Kraft Mayo instead of Fisher's Kind of Mayo Looking Sauce. :shrug:

 

[Penderyn]

Personally, I find pure capitalism (which hasn't existed in this country for a while) to be the system that doesn't adequately address the problem of human selfishness.

The smart American leftists do not want a socialist system that makes life comfortable and easy for everyone. That indeed rewards selfishness and laziness. What they do want is a system that makes sure those who are working full time or at least trying full time to find work have the bare minimum to support themselves and to take reasonable steps to better their own circumstances. That type of system does not reward selfishness. Nor does it encourage laziness -- since people are naturally greedy and selfish, people will still be encouraged to work harder so they can get more than the bare minimum.

Since Senator McCarthy's terror Americans are not allowed to be told anything true about socialism, as you know. No normal human being is lazy, because they want the status of achieving things and get bored when not doing something - laziness is a capitalist invention. Selfishness and spite are central to capitalism, as everyone knows, and are drilled into the mugs all the time. Get shot of capitalism and we can get by on about three hours 'official' work per week and get on with what WE find useful for the rest.