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Benefits of Socialism That Are Often Overlooked
Socialism’s main benefit is supplying a huge number of jobs. Quite often, these jobs are done by people formerly considered unemployable.
Remember how in East Germany, before that nation crumbled away, 25 percent of all East Germans worked for the Stasi? This type of job allowed those East Germans to spend their time reporting on their neighbors and others. They could often work from home. And all the job required was the ability to patiently listen in to the neighbor’s conversation. Such were the wonders of East Germany’s electronic surveillance equipment. Later rather than sooner, the neighbor might tell a joke or two mocking some government official and then it was curtains for that neighbor.
Granted, that activity doesn’t make for a productive nation with a high standard of living, but it did offer full employment!
One other benefit is that the various matters relating to a court case are soon streamlined, making the court system much more efficient. No longer is there a need for a plaintiff to spend time acquiring reasonable evidence.
Instead, the socialist view of “evidence, shmevidence” saves the plaintiffs and the entire system lots of time and oodles of money.
As long as a person is a member of society in good standing, the claims about a guy who may have “something something, not sure of date, not sure of location” over three decades ago will be taken seriously. And if the guy can’t prove a negative, well, too bad for him.
There may be other benefits of socialism I can’t think of right now. (But there are a lot of parades and street marches, if you are into that type of thing.)
Please feel free to mention socialism’s other benefits. Here’s an East German joke:
Published in GeneralA judge comes out of a court room in East Berlin with an assistant. The judge is laughing and laughing. The assistant says, “What’s so funny?”
The judge: “This defendant told a really funny joke today in court, when I asked him to tell the court why he was charged with sedition.”
Assistant: “So what was the joke?”
Judge: (Still laughing) “I can’t tell you the joke — If I did, I’d have to sentence myself to 20 years.”
I’m listening to Stephen Kotkin’s 2nd volume on Stalin now. One thing that comes through in this book is how Stalin had a capacity for work that surpassed any of his peers. In fact, that’s how he came to power in the first place. If everyone else had as much energy and paid as much attention to detail as he did, his socialism might have worked a little better. A little, but not a lot.
Because even Stalin could be overwhelmed by the workload of running an economy from the center. And his management style, even aside from all the murders and forced confessions, was problematic. He wanted subordinates to make decisions on their own without his having to get involved . But he was constantly overruling them anyway, or bypassing his own chain of command to meddle directly at lower levels. It was not a way to run an organization or get the best out of his team. Of course, killing off so many of his subordinates didn’t help, either.
Fun, but also moving.
Update: For a flat-out funny see also, try Comrade Detective (Amazon Prime)–although you could easily get lost among the levels of East-West propaganda parody. A feature, not a bug.