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Socialist country

From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A socialist country is a sovereign state in which everyone in society equally owns the factors of production.

In a socialist state, the distribution of resources and their allocation is by the State itself. Here, the state gives people items and goods. The state also makes sure that each class gets access to goods too. The four factors of production are labor, capital goods, natural resources and entrepreneurship. In a socialist country, people account for own needs and other needs. The resources of the country go to both types of needs. Social needs include things like education, healthcare, defense, transportation and the preservation of natural resources, as well as caring for people who can't contribute to production (such as children, the elderly and the disabled). Theoretically, everyone in a socialist society receives a share of the production based on their individual needs. A socialist country is vastly different from countries that practice capitalism. The main goal of a socialist society is to end exploitation and improve the quality of life of their citizens.

In a socialist society the logic of the profit doesn’t exist, so (in theory) they hope things will be cheaper and equal. However, in practice, socialism has repeatedly led to a centralized power grab, higher prices, increased poverty, lowered production, and squalor. The reason for this discrepancy between idealism and practice, is due to the psychology of human behavior. People naturally work harder when they directly benefit; socialism takes away this incentive. Government spends money less efficiently than individuals do, and also more corruptly, with special interest payouts and waste; individuals do not. The best way of ensuring a higher standard of living is through limited government and free enterprise. [1]

Socialism has been established in many countries, even today. However, countries have commonly struggled under socialism, shown through conflicts such as in Venezuela. No country has claimed to have fully reached peak socialism, and is therefore impossible to determine whether it is a corrupt way of government.

References

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  1. "The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 1976". NobelPrize.org. Retrieved 2024-07-28.