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One time I asked Professor von Mises, the great expert on the economics of socialism, at what point on this spectrum of statism would he designate a country as “socialist” or not. At that time, I wasn’t sure that any definite criterion existed to make that sort of clear-cut judgment. And so I was pleasantly surprised at the clarity and decisiveness of Mises’s answer. “A stock market,” he answered promptly. “A stock market is crucial to the existence of capitalism and private property. For it means that there is a functioning market in the exchange of private titles to the means of production. There can be no genuine private ownership of capital without a stock market: there can be no true socialism if such a market is allowed to exist.

Murray Rothbard, in “Making Economic Sense” (2006)

Socialism

• common ownership of the means of production, distribution, & exchange
• is the path from capitalism to true communism:
  • capitalism → socialism → communism

Personal Property vs Private Property

• personal property - things you own (e.g. toothbrush)
• private property - things used to make more money and give power to their owners (e.g. factories, banks, offices, infrastructure)

Communist Society

• stateless
• moneyless
• classless

Communist State

• socialist state ruled by a communist party

Communism Variants

Communism - a stateless, classless, & moneyless society with common ownership of the means of production

• anarchism
• classical marxism - transitionary stage between capitalism and communism called “socialism”
  • orthodox marxism - Marx died before finishing his work, so followers picked up the torch to finish it
    • Luxemburgism
    • Leninism
  • revisionist marxism - umbrella of marxism
    • social democracy - pro-capitalism (e.g. Scandinavia)
    • democratic socialism - anti-capitalism
    • etc

Socialism vs Capitalism

Socialism

• free healthcare
• free education
• subsidized housing
• fosters innovation

Capitalism

• extortionate healthcare
• student loan debt
• work or die

If it conflicts with profits, capitalists often ignore signs like in the case of oil companies denying climate change. Any innovation that does take place is usually to the benefit of the capitalists, not us

Does Communism not work because of human nature being greedy/lazy?

to look at people in capitalist society and conclude that human nature is egoism, is like looking at people in a factory where pollution is destroying their lungs and saying that it is human nature to cough ~ Andrew Collier, Marx: A Beginner’s Guide

Capitalism doesn’t make anything only labor does. Capitalism and Socialism only determine who has the means of production and who gets paid