What Is Socialism?

[Chris]

A whole lot of discussion of socialism is a waste because so many simply do not understand what it is. So I thought I'd dig up a socialist professor to explain it.



Here is what he says in the first 30 minutes.

He is describing modern socialism. There are earlier variations but he is concerned with the socialism of today. Today's socialism in based on Marx's analysis of capitalism in Das Capital.

Capitalism can be described as follows:

EL + LL = TL

EL is embodied labor. It's the inputs to production, resources, land, tools, etc. Capital. LL is living labor. It's the value workers put into production. TL is total labor, embodied plus living labor.

TL is divided. A portion is returned to cover EL to keep the system working. The rest, the LL, is divided between the workers and the capitalist. The capitalist's portion of EL is not just profit but invested in more EL, invested in social services from religion to education to welfare, and so on, only some is profit.

This is unfair. The workers do not get back the value of their labor.

The purpose of socialism is then to democratize the distribution of LL to reinvestment, social investment, and worker compensation.

Most implementations of socialism fail to democratize distribution of LL. Instead, the decisions of the capitalist are replaced by decisions of the state, by central planning. But that is not socialism.

Socialism is the democratic distribution of the value of living labor.

That's it.


I will add only one small but important note: The socialist labor theory of value is something Marx borrowed from Adam Smith, a theory not really in accordance with what Smith wrote, a theory long refuted.