Within these years Thai people of all genders and ages turned their attention to economic and political matters more

Of course, political, economic and regime terms. Many things have become everyone’s daily words. both democracy, capitalist society, and socialist systems Some of these terms seem easy to understand. Some things seem difficult to understand. And each has different pros and cons.

In this article, I would like to write a description of Socialism, Socialism, but the word Socialism or Socialism. What do people say mean? So is this socialist system a good or bad conclusion? Let’s try to find out together.

Table of Contents

• What is Socialism?
• Pros and cons of socialism
• Socialism and Soviet Russia
• Socialism and Finland
• socialist type that everyone may be familiar with
• Other Recommended Articles

What is Socialism?

Socialism or socialism is an economic model. In which everyone in society owns the factors of production, distributions, with the central or government planning the economy. And the government will take control of activities related to public utilities. or related to the daily lives of the people

In the capitalist system or Capitalism that our Thai society is. We can see that in a capitalist system everyone can own a business. And everyone can hire employees. Or to say another way is to ask us to have money. We will always have a chance… In this society and system, everyone has a chance.

But in socialism, Socialism uses a system that is the opposite of capitalism. That is, everyone will be a joint owner. (everyone here including the people and the government)

Note: The definition of capitalism and socialism I wrote in this article. is theoretical meaning which may have some extremes and may be different from the meaning of economic analysts. and some social workers say

The main problem with the capitalist system is ‘The disparity’ between the upper class and the lower class Because a society that is popular with money is the main opportunity for people who have a lot of money. which people with money will have a lot of opportunities And the more you can make more money But on the other hand, people who don’t have any money have no chance. (or much less likely than others) This kind of society makes the rich continue to get rich. And the poor cannot escape the circle of poverty.

meanwhile Socialism is a system in which everyone is equal. because everyone owns the same (In most cases, the state will take care of distributing resources equally to everyone).

Socialism is different from communist in that everything is owned by the state. and people cannot own anything.

One thing everyone should understand is There is no social system of any country in the world that is 100% capitalist, 100% communist, or 100% socialist. Every country brings the pros and cons of each social system. brought to adapt to their own environment and people

Pros and cons of socialism

The ideology of socialism is to reduce class inequality. which we may see clearly in a capitalist social system Especially the problem of the lower class that some people have nothing. And there was no chance to make excuses.

which the socialist system Food, clothing, and even education will be distributed equally to everyone. At least the 4 factors and the factors required for life such as education and medicine should be ‘opportunities’ that everyone ‘must have’, not one who is richer than an advantage.

In addition, working in the socialist system You don’t have to think about the problem of socialist work again. This means that the employer does not take advantage of the employee. no child labor There are no big companies that do everything, sell everything. and oppress small business owners

However, the socialist world has proven that money and competition enable a country’s economy to develop. Which if a country lives in a 100% populist social system, it probably won’t be able to push the country to grow up to other countries. This means that the country’s economy as a whole may be at risk of collapsing. If the public does not have a motivation like ‘money’ as a driver

Let’s take a look at some examples of countries that call themselves ‘socialism’. How are they doing in each country?

Socialism and Soviet Russia

The most talked about example of socialism is Soviet Russia, which is a very failed example of socialism.

The social system of Soviet Russia in the 1920s was that everyone had to work for the country and for other people. If we worked, the state would give us wages for food, clothing, medicine, and other necessities.

This kind of society at first seemed to be good. But what happens is that the productivity of both agriculture and manufacturing and so on is very low, much lower than when it was capitalism.

Socialism makes everyone think
We don’t have to try to be superior to others.
Because we have no reason to try for others. 

The first problem is that there is not enough food for the entire population. Even if the government tries to import food and 4 necessities from abroad, it is still not enough. Soon after, the economy began to collapse.

Of course, there are other reasons for the failure of the Soviet Union. The other main reason people often talk about is fraud and corruption in the government itself. Of course, when the economy is bad People began to have no food to eat. Seeing the government cheat again, it’s not strange to make a revolution.

Many economists have said that capitalist society It is a naturally occurring society. No matter how much we try to fix or develop Humans will revert back to capitalism anyway. However, at present, there are many countries where capitalism can be combined with socialism. Finland, for example.

Socialism and Finland 

Before I started talking about socialism and Finland. May I explain first? ‘Finland uses capitalism’, but there are many factors that seem to be anti-capitalism. ‘Socialism promotes capitalism’ to be more ‘gentle’ and ‘equitable’

What Soviet Russia teaches us to understand is
Equality is important. The equality of ‘opportunities’
is not equality of ‘results’.

If everyone gets the same results Everyone has no reason to try or improve themselves. because the result is still the same No matter how much we work, we still get 3 meals a day.

which if we look at it only in economics If we don’t make the economy a capitalist model People will not try. And the country will not be able to grow.

On the other hand, the socialist system adopted by Finland. is equality of opportunity in education.

in finland It is illegal for schools to collect tuition fees. This means that every student no matter how rich their parents are. Must attend a government school And because all government schools are of the same quality All schools use the same standards. Every parent can send their child to any school. (It’s a school near home)

(which means Wealthy parents who want their children to study in good schools it is necessary to pay taxes Donate money to the government let the government use the money to administer more educational development)

Of course, the graduating students will have the same skills. At least there is no need to compare who graduated from what university, which high school. In this case, children whose parents are more wealthy still have a better starting point than other children anyway. But children who have learned get to socialize with friends of all classes will have more sympathy for people of different classes than children from capitalist society in other countries

However, the main reason why Finland is able to do this is Because Finland’s population is small. and are relatively close to each other (There is less class inequality than in populous countries) making administration and supervision of educational resources easier.

socialist type that everyone may be familiar with

Large noodles, small noodles, noodles, people still call them noodles as well. Therefore, socialism that many people think has only one meaning. There can be many types as well.

Indeed, socialism can be divided into many different types. Because each country uses a combination of socialism and capitalism, more or less. which, if really coming to see and analyze each country Each country is not quite the same. It allows us to define a socialist social system in many ways.

In this section, I would like to pick up the types of socialism that people talk about a lot. Most of them come from the mainstream socialist systems in history.

Democratic Socialism – It is a socialist system with a democratic government. This means that the people must choose a government that runs the country in a populist way. The government has to take care of and distribute the production to the people. Some countries currently use this system such as Finland. that uses democracy to keep the government in charge of the vital resources of education

Libertarian Socialism – is an anarchist socialist regime. or socialism without a government It means that people own everything. Everyone is free to do whatever they want. And most importantly, everyone will not be bound to the capitalist system. This is perhaps the most opposite of the social system we live in today.

Marxism – Socialism according to Karl Marx’s theory is considered the precursor of socialist thought. At the heart of Marxism is the creation of a society that is opposed to capitalism. This is a system that Karl Marx says cannot last forever. by the socialist system of Soviet Russia was instilled with the ideas of Karl Marx to some extent It’s just that Soviet Russian socialism in practice has made too many mistakes.

Utopian Socialism – is the original socialist system. in which the thinker associates the ecosystem with what is known as a paradise on earth (Utopia) in this socialist system Not all citizens will be influenced by capitalism. And ready to work together to create a better society for everyone. This system believes that everyone has good ethics and morals. It can be called a dream system ever.

We can see that the types of socialism are very diverse. Some are similar to our typical social system today. Some of them seem to be the exact opposite of the society we live in today.

for some people It would be difficult to accept or understand any other social system that we have not lived in before. but in reality Every type of system has different pros and cons. It depends on how well the citizens and the country’s leaders are able to control, act and execute.

We will see that each country has its strengths. Disadvantages are not the same Some countries, such as India or China, have large populations and cannot use the same social system as countries with smaller populations like Finland. Some countries like America are considered high-income countries. Everyone already has four factors. may not require the equality of the 4 factors like countries near us

In the end, I think it’s going to be difficult for us to say which social system is the best. However, we can study Understanding various social systems to find ways to make our society ‘better’