Right now, we have two signed up for the Mega Challenge–it can be done, but you will both need to be vigilant about not only answering the prompts, but also responding to one another:
First thing I’d like you to discuss is what you know (or you can do some quick research) about socialism and communism. What is the difference? What are the similarities? What are the key compononents? Who were the original theorists and philosophers promoting socialism?
January 7, 2009 at 5:33 pm
Socialism is a system of social organization that determines the control of production/distribution in the community.
Communism is a system of social organization based on actual ownership for the city or state. They both demonstrate the ownership of products, but only socialism determines the control of the distribution. Lenin wanted to build socialism in one country, but after he died Stalin took over for him heading in the same direction.
January 7, 2009 at 5:48 pm
Similarities- Both tax at high amounts, they both try to keep government sevices at a high standard.
Differances-
Socialism- allows private enterprise, high earning enterprises are taxed heavily. The socialists are given alot of rights protected by the government. Has no problem with religion. quite individualist.
Communism- are no private enterprises they are all owned by the government. The communist countrys have no rights protected by the government. communism is very collectivist. Communism opposed religion.
Key components-
“Socialism posits ideals of equality of opportunity and redistribution of wealth to reduce inequalities generated by capitalism.”
“based on common ownership and control of the means of production and property in general.”
theorists and philosophers-
Robert Owen, Charles Fourier, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, Louis Blanc, and Saint-Simon
Works sited:
Interactive Multimedia Electronic Journal of Computer-Enhanced Learning. 07 Jan. 2009 .
“Communism | PRAGOTI.” PRAGOTI | Progress & Struggle. 07 Jan. 2009 .
January 7, 2009 at 5:50 pm
Good points emily and good detail
January 7, 2009 at 6:13 pm
I love how you put that socialism is the source of private enterprise! I never would have thought of that. I agree with the exception that I don’t understand why the government gives protected rights to the socialists when in fact the government should favor communism because everything is controlled by the government.
January 7, 2009 at 6:21 pm
By the way I meant to put that you have excellent detail and you are setting the bar very high for this discussion. Keep up the good work!
January 7, 2009 at 6:27 pm
According to Naver knowledge in, Socialism and Communism are similar, but they are slightly different.
Karl Marks made the idea of 5 steps to become a communist society
Primitive Communism Society
Feudalistic society
Capitalism society
an economic system based on private ownership of capital. Individualism
Russian(Soviet Union) proletariat rebel against the Czar.
Socialism society
Socialism used dialectic to criticize capitalism. Karl Marks improved capitalism to make socialism.
Communism society
The last stage of socialism. The society of the book ‘Animal Farm’, North Korea, and Soviet Union(During the Stalin’s government).
January 7, 2009 at 8:41 pm
Nice job, guys! Keep up the great work. Mike and Emily, thank you for documenting your source–Emily, you may want to do the same.
The interesting thing is that the two people originally signed up have not checked in yet, so if they do join the discussion, you’ll have quite a group.
Hopefully, you will be able to share some of this information with your classmates.
January 7, 2009 at 8:56 pm
socialism is referring to a wide set of economic theories/ states in which the social organization or collective ownership and administration of the production and distribution of goods.
Communism is based on the idea of common ownership and control of the means of production of goods in general. it is an idealized society where man kind is free of oppression and scarcity
communism is usually considered a branch of socialism so they have many similarities suck as they both have a system for collective/ common ownership and they both have heavy taxes that help fund well fair programs and the regulation of markets. they also have their differences in the way they do things such as while socialism strives to eliminate all problems with the world while communism concentrates on specific problems such as the capitalist market economy and the legacy of imperialism and nationalism
Western European social critics were the first, modern socialists (Robert Owen, Charles Fourier, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, Louis Blanc, and Saint-Simon) who criticized the excessive poverty and inequality consequence of the Industrial Revolution. they strive to create a Utopian state where everyone was equal
January 7, 2009 at 9:01 pm
mike nice detail and orginization and thurough discriptions
emily i like how u summed everything up short and sweet a good way of expressing the idea.
and alex i like how you tried to sum things up but a little more detail would be nice other then that the basic idea is nice and clear.
over all i think this will be a good group and i expect this to be a great discussion!
January 7, 2009 at 9:03 pm
sorry forgot to spell check hears the spell checked version.
mike nice detail and organization and thorough descriptions
emily i like how u summed everything up short and sweet a good way of expressing the idea.
and alex i like how you tried to sum things up but a little more detail would be nice other then that the basic idea is nice and clear.
over all i think this will be a good group and i expect this to be a great discussion!
January 7, 2009 at 10:24 pm
I believe socialism is a lot like communism it is less restrictive and provides social services for the population were as communism has more restricted policy’s it provides for citizens but also is very hard and strict living. From what I know socialism looks OK on paper no one is treated unfairly and everyone is equal. The main problem is not the idea but people. Most people only work hard to benefit themselves but if there is no incentive there is no reason for them to work hard. Therefore the products that country will be less quality than other countries. One of the reason our economy flourishes and grows technologically is because people want a better life for themselves, they know if they work hard and if the come up with something new they can have a better life for themselves. This doesn’t mean that everyone has fair opportunities some families have better education and more money to spend on college and etc. I think Stalin was a bad man and if a cruel man is running a country with alot of power only bad can come from that. I think that Lennin and Karl Marx had pretty good ideas but they didn’t factor in all of the possibility’s if the world was full of perfect people socialism and communism might be better viewed than it is now. But we do not life in a perfect world and people are lazy and do not want to work hard. I think that is why both communism and socialism failed in our society.
January 7, 2009 at 10:27 pm
Connor i thought you did a great job you gave us a lot of facts and made communism very clear to me. Mike I like how you split everything into sections.
Good job everyone! (sorry I posted late I forgot all about the mega challenge)
January 7, 2009 at 10:47 pm
Socialism is a central planned economy where the government controls everything and there is no private property. The first one to actually use the idea of socialism was Lenin though it is generally thought that Karl Marx was the one to start socialism.
Communism is an idea in which everybody collectively owns everything. Communism is also sometimes considered a perfect society where people are all perfectly equal, no rich and no poor.
Communism and Socialism are similar in the way that everyone owns everything together. Communism is also generally thought of as a branch of socialism. One difference between the two is that Socialism is mainly economic while Communism is both economic and political.
Henri de Ssint-Simon, Robert Owen, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, and Mikhail Bakunin were the modern Socialists who were irritated by the poverty of the industrial revolution and decided to try to create the perfect society with total equality AKA Socialism and later on after changing to become classless, Communism
January 7, 2009 at 10:51 pm
So far I think that this discussion is really going well I really like Emily’s because it puts everything really clearly in a short paragraph.
Mike, I really like all of the detail that you put in and the chopping it up into sections fot each part of the question.
January 8, 2009 at 1:05 am
The major differences between socialist society and communist society is distribution.
Communist society
Government takes all goods from proletariat and distribute equally to proletariat
(May be little more to members of party)
Socialist society
Government doesn’t take goods from proletariat.
Tries to eradicate the difference between wealth and poverty.
Proletariat is the French word for laborer
Antonym is Bourgeois, wealthy people
January 8, 2009 at 1:09 am
People got good point and as Marina said, Communist society is the perfect society for the vision of Marxist.
(Communism is the best and last step of Marxism but only for theory. Can’t be real in real world.)