Mark Small

“Socialism” is not a term easily defined. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy explains socialism “is a rich tradition of political thought and practice 7/30

... the history of which contains a vast number of views and theories, often differing in many of their conceptual, empirical, and normative commitments.” 8/30

The entry goes on to note that in a 1924 “Dictionary of Socialism, there were canvassed no fewer than forty definitions of socialism... The entry notes it would present the main features of socialism, both as a critique of capitalism, and as a proposal for its replacement 9/30

“Socialism is best defined in contrast with capitalism ... and as a proposal for overcoming and replacing it.” 10/30

Great graffiti in 1975 in Las Vegas, New Mexico: “Capitalism is the system of man exploiting man/socialism is the other way around.” To understand how the two systems function perhaps helps better than a specific definition. 11/30

Capitalism is like a one-loss basketball tournament - like the NCAA big dance - except businesses, not basketball teams, compete. If a business cannot compete effectively - i.e. operate at a profit - as other similar businesses, it folds or bought out - i.e., eliminated. 12/30

And usually the business entities in the Capitalism Tournament are corporations. Corporations are entities that shield individual shareholders from liability from corporate conduct. The Boston Tea Party dumped tea owned by a corporation into Boston Harbor. 13/30

Businesses, over time, do not confine themselves to a single industry. Amazon, for example, started as an on-line book dealer. Now Amazon sells many things in many lines of products and services. 14/30