Part I:
Initial Post: Write 100 words within the Discussion Board responding to the following questions. Create a substantive and clear post expressing your research, thoughts, and ideas:
- Have you ever experienced living in a socialist or communist society?
- If so, explain your experience.
- If not, share how do you view or imagine a socialist or communist society? Would you want to live there? Why or why not?
Response Posts: Create a 100-word response to at least 2 of your fellow classmates by replying to their Initial Post regarding items you found to be compelling and enlightening. Please consider the following questions when responding:
- Do any of the student’s statements make you reconsider your position? If so, which ones made you change your mind?
- If not, what additional points can you make to directly refute your peer’s statements?
- What did you learn from your classmate’s posting?
- What clarification do you need regarding the posting?
In your own words, please post a response to the Discussion Board and comment on other postings. You will be graded on the quality of your postings.
1st Response:
Christopher Hilton
Unit 5 Discussion Board
February 5, 2014
What I Imagine Living in a Socialist or Communist Society Would Be Like
Communists
In communists’ societies: government controlled property, education, labor, all transportation, agricultural, speech, media, and land. Nobody has any private property and heavy income tax on everyone in a communist state or country. Karl Marx created the “Communist Manifesto” in 1848, which lead to communist places. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels believe that in a communist society that set standards of equality by the government and by having the same class of level. Everybody is paid the same amount and be placed were the government tells you. This means that, if you work harder, better, and smatter than the other person you still paid the same (Alia Hoyt, N/A date).
Socialist
In socialists’ societies: government is the people that voted by the people for higher rank. The government controls the land, production, and buildings of the society. The socialist want to have a free open market to everyone, because the people believe in equality and that everybody has to work for their state, country, or community. This done by the democratic, that everybody has a say in what is next or has to be done by the majority. In addition, socialist believe that their society would end money. The socialists organization is for non-profit and sale and no class bases (N/A author, 2006, World Socialist Movement). The socialist has a Labor Party (SLP), which directs the people and voted by the people be elected around the world. You would need volunteers to be doctors, scientist, etc… You also have free healthcare and higher education with high taxes (N/A author, 2006, What is Socialism).
Why or Why I Would Not Like to Live in a Socialist or Communist Society
I would not to live in a Communist and Socialist society, because you have are told what you have to do and you have no say so. I like my freedom to exit a job and go to a new one. We in the US have our own property and create wherever we want without asking for permission by our government. We have rules to follow to protect us from other that do not follow them. Here in the US, we are capitalism for profit and gain with a socialist democracy. We can elect who we want to run for are states and nation, if we do not like what they are doing; we protest and get re-election forms. Yes are government controlls part of our lives, but not everything.
References
Alia Hoyt, (N/A date) How Communism Works, Retrieved from: http://people.howstuffworks.com
World Socialist Movement, (N/A author, 2006) What is Socialism, Retrieved from: http://www.worldsocialism.org
What is Socialism, (N/A author, 2006) Retrieved from: http://www.slp.org/what_is.htm
2nd Response:
Unit 5 DB
Gina Castilleja
Introduction
Since I have never lived in a socialist country it is hard for me to begin so I did a lot of research. I wanted to try and give my opinion based on a median, not the extreme form of socialism we all know. There are many forms of socialism so I took what I could find as common factors among them and used that as the starting point.
Option 2
What I Imagine Living in a Socialist or Communist Society Would Be Like
The first common thread I found among different socialists structures was the inability to have private ownership (Scholasticus, 2010). Under a socialist’s society, this would make sense since the end goal is to distribute but this is a concern for me. One of the things that make me feel secure in life is my home. I have the Homestead Act on my home like many Americans do. If for any reason I was to fall on financial hardship and not able to maintain my bills; as long as I can make the mortgage payment no one can ever take my home.
The government does not own my home so I do not have to worry about being moved, reassigned new living quarters or forced to move in with someone else due to a shortage in housing. Giving up my free will to choose where and how I live would bother me greatly. There is something about owning your home and having that safe place to land at the end of every day that makes all the hard work worth it. I can pass it on to my children and they can pass it on to theirs and so on.
Under many socialist structures money is not how we think of it. Some are given labor tokens or labor credits (Scholasticus, 2010). With this form of payment they can buy goods for everyday needs but it is not true money so there is control on how it can be spent. This concept is really hard to absorb for me. To have the government even controlling your purchases to certain extents is wild. Depending on the severity of the socialist’s country the government decides what daily goods are needed. This is factored by averages and ability to output goods cheap. This process leaves out goods for some like fruits, vegetables (Scholasticus, 2010) and other items that are deemed necessary in my world.
The price of goods are not set by supply and demand but by how the government sees them as necessary. With the government setting prices based on their outlook I would imagine there would be many things I would want to purchase with labor credits that would no longer be an option for my family. What if it was decided shampoo is a luxury and we can wash our hair with bar soap or that we shouldn’t wash out hair more than every third day to conserve water? As a side not, bar soap would result in irreversible knotting and hair loss so this is not a first world concern, had to mention that in case some of the men were not aware. These are the things I would worry about. It is easy to control a population by having the power to set the prices.
Why or Why I Would Not Like to Live in a Socialist or Communist Society
I have no desire to live in a socialist’s society because one of the things my family and I are working toward is leaving something for our children. The freedom to provide for our children even after our passing and ensure they are in adequate housing, good schools and we can chose our careers is a privilege. It is understandable why socialists looks temping and sounds nice. I think it starts off with good intentions but a group of citizens being controlled by a government who decides what you need to sustain is not an equal system. That may be the intent but it is in no way equality.
I want the freedom to work harder and reap the benefits of doing so and the freedom to do what I want as a career. Socialist’s society makes me uneasy. Anytime the government has too much power over how you live are inviting trouble. We are grown adults and do not need someone to redistribute our money. I work hard for what I earn and I have personal satisfaction in knowing I personally earned everything. There is personal pride in proving your family and not relying on the government. It is family’s responsibility to take care of another when things go wrong. That is what my family and I do. Someone is on hard times, they move in with one of us and we get them back on track. Once back on track, they repay the favor to another member who may need it down the line. It could be argued that we have a more burdened life for our freedoms but I suspect we also have a higher quality of living. Not monetary, true quality.
References
Scholasticus, K (2010) Socialists Economic Systems. Retrieved on February 3, 2014 from, http://www.buzzle.com/articles/socialist-economic-system.html
Part I also:
Romanticism
Class,
In this week’s readings we read about Romanticism, that style of art characterized as “an overt reaction against the enlightenment and classical culture of the eighteenth century” (Sayre, 2012, p. 389 ). In what ways was it a reaction against Enlightenment ideals? Please view the slide show at the following link, choose one of the paintings there, and describe how it reflects Romantics ideals:
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/roma/hd_roma.htm#slideshow3
Sayre, H. M. (2012). Discovering the humanities (2nd ed.). Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.
Part II:
Cultural perspective based on social, political and economic status can, in reality, be thought of as a theory of why a person from a certain cultural background will behave or react in a particular manner. These theories are used to explain the cultural identity of an individual in simplistic terms. These differences are further utilized to quickly pass judgment on another person without getting to know who they on a personal level. In short, people use cultural generalities to place an individual into a “box.”
When the theories of cultural perspective are combined with the philosophies used to create a “social contract,” more complex patterns within a society emerge. This is because a “social contract” is created between the people and their governing body. It incorporates the certainty that the governing body only exists to serve the will of the people, and the people are the source of all political power enjoyed by the governing body.
Library Research Assignment:
Understanding a culture is not as easy as characterizing it based on common behaviors. In fact, a culture can be defined in a multitude of ways. One way is by examining how the people interact with their governing body. The goal of this assignment is to choose one culture and explore its “social contracts.”
Write an essay of 3–4 pages (cover page and work cited page not included), answering the following questions:
- Describe the chosen culture in terms of its social, political, and economic structure.
- Explain how this cultures development has been effected by its “social contract” over time.