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[Socialism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialism) is an economic and social system defined by **social ownership of the means of production**. (Workers democratically own and operate the places in which they work, as opposed to private control of production aka [capitalism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitalism)).
The [means of production](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Means_of_production) are non-human inputs that help create economic value, such as **factories, industrial machinery, workplaces, large tracts of land**, etc. The means of production are the means of life. Socialists refer to the means of production as *capital*, or private property. Private property in the socialist context shouldn't be confused with [personal property](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_property#Personal_versus_private_property), such as your home, car, computer, and other possessions, which would be protected. Private property is in actuality a weasel-word for *absentee property*, whose ownership is claimed through title only, for the purpose of extracting rent from the actual occupants, workers, or users.
In a capitalist society the means of production are owned and controlled privately, by those that can afford them (the capitalist, aka those with capital). Production is carried out to **benefit the capitalist** (production for profit). Workers are paid a wage, and **receive that amount regardless of how much value they produce**. Socialists call this difference the [surplus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surplus_value), IE (value produced - wage paid), or profit. A 1983 report by England national income and expenditures found that on average, 26 minutes of every hour worked(or 43% of labor value added) by English workers across a wide range of industries went to various exploiting or unproductive groups, with workers receiving only 57% of their pre-tax productive output as wages^[1](http://ricardo.ecn.wfu.edu/~cottrell/socialism_book/new_socialism.pdf).
Capitalists use the surplus to [push out competitors](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-competitive_practices) and gain market share, leading to the destruction of most small businesses, with [just a few companies](http://imgur.com/a/xgnEp) controlling our food, media, energy, transportation, and finances.
[Wage workers](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oztdRo9GLLk) are **completely dependent** on selling their labor power to those in control of production in order to gain access to the necessities of life (money for food, shelter, clothing, etc). Its similarities to chattel slavery has lead many to term wage work as [wage slavery](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wage_slavery), with voluntary employment being simply a false choice between **one exploiter or another**.
####History, and Human Nature
Capitalism has nothing to do with human nature. People can be greedy, or cooperative, depending on the incentive structure and ideology of the socioeconomic system they live in, which is usually out of their control. For the vast majority of human history, small groups of people survived by foraging, growing, or hunting for food **as a community**, in a mode of life termed [primitive communism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primitive_communism). Communal sharing was essential to the survival of the group. Markets likewise were rare, since communities tended to be self-sufficient. Rituals, harvest festivals, a group of elders deciding fair distribution, or communal decision-making accomplished what markets do today. Private property(and male-dominated societies) came into existence with the growth of large-scale agriculture and animal domestication(A historically male-dominated activity). These tended to be passed on to male descendents(which in turn required strict female sexual control, isolation, and increasing objectification).
Capitalism evolved historically out of [feudalism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feudalism) and [slave societies](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery), all three being dependent on a dominant [ruling class](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruling_class) receiving the surplus of a subordinate class.
Socialism as a diverse philosophy arose out of a criticism after the french revolution, in which a capitalist class(the [bourgeoisie](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bourgeoisie)) seemed to merely replace feudal lords to become the new ruling class. Marxism is a socialist tradition, which places emphasis on the means of production, your relation to them, and the inherent class struggles involved between those who control the productive forces and those who don't, as the primary force driving economic and social relations.
####Value and Conformity
Economic systems, such as Capitalism, don't invent, create, or [put people into space](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_space_program). Capitalism doesn't *create* or *build* anything. Workers do. [The labor theory of value](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labor_theory_of_value) recognizes that our most valuable resource is time, specifically **socially useful** labor time. Under capitalism, the [subjective theory of value](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subjective_theory_of_value) allows the mega-rich to justify owning [thousands of lifetimes](https://www.reddit.com/r/socialism/comments/4wxdnb/how_many_lifetimes_of_labor_has_bill_gates_stolen/?ref=search_posts) of stolen labor.
[Socialism has nothing to do with conformity](https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1914/mar/11.htm), restriction of artistic expression, or equality in abilities. It instead proposes economic and political equality through the abolition of classes, placing all citizens on an equal footing with regard to the means of production. It is Capitalism, with its inherent authoritarian hierarchies, that imposes conformity on society through [vapid consumerism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodity_fetishism), and through the authoritarian nature of capitalist firms themselves. A [chain of command](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Command_hierarchy) ensures that orders from capitalists drop like a rock, to dominate the actions of every worker.
####The State, and Democracy
Private ownership of the means of production was established through force and [private tyranny](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVt7U2YIgZs), and is only upheld through force. **The state is an instrument of class domination** which (in capitalist society) exercises a monopoly on violence to forcibly maintain the right to private property. The modern state developed alongside the emergent capitalist system as the bourgeoisie seized political and economic control. It arises from the irreconcilable class antagonisms that exist in society.
Socialism as an economic system is distinct from [neoliberalism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoliberalism), as well as [social democracy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_democracy)/Welfare [state capitalism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_capitalism), which aims to band-aid the ills of capitalism while leaving the exploitation inherent in [wage slavery](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wage_slavery) intact. Social services provided by the capitalist-controlled state have nothing to do with socialism.
Many Marxists call the totalitarian regimes typically called socialist, as more correctly defined as [State Capitalism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_capitalism), since production was controlled by state bureaucracies who also distributed the surplus, rather than through the democratic input of workers. However, the early stages of the [1917 russian revolution](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_Revolution) were far more progressive than is typically portrayed; Divorce was legalized, **Homosexuality was decriminalized**, land was distributed to the peasantry, banks were nationalized, control of factories was given to worker's councils, **the workday was shortened**, wages were fixed at a higher rate, all elected officials could now be immediately recalled, it created mass literacy drives, free nurseries, communal kitchens, and laundries. Western nations(including the US) [sent troops to russia](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allied_intervention_in_the_Russian_Civil_War) to fight against the gains of the revolution. Most of these revolutionary gains were lost due to a multitude of factors(civil war, a drastic decrease of the numbers of working class (50% decrease in the industrial centers), decimation of russian industry) that merit deeper study.
Socialists view democracy under capitalism to be an unrealistic utopia, better labeled as [Bourgeois Democracy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy_in_Marxism), or democracy for the rich. Under capitalism, political parties, representatives, infrastructure, and the media **are controlled by capitalists**, who place restrictions and limitations on the ability and choices of the working class. [Bourgeois democracies](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberal_democracy#Dictatorship_of_the_bourgeoisie) tend to be highly plutocratic, resulting in legislation [favorable to the wealthy](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tu32CCA_Ig), regardless of the population's actual preferences. Examples of restrictions include the [First Past the Post](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7tWHJfhiyo) voting system(which enforces capitalist two party domination), [gerrymandering](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerrymandering), long term limits with no way to recall unpopular representatives, restrictions crafted to disenfranchise poor and minority voters, voter suppression, electoral fraud, unverifiable closed source electronic voting systems, capitalist campaign financing, low voter to representative ratios, and inconvienient voting locations and times. In short, political democracy can't exist without economic democracy.
####Why does capitalism appear stable?
During Capitalisms' growth period, when there are new markets and labor forces to expand to, capitalism can appear stable for the richer consumers whose products are actually being produced by exploited, poorer workforces. Likewise, in a labor shortage, as existed in the newly industrializing US, capitalists have no choice but to keep wages high(and the rate of exploitation low) in order to bring in workers from other countries, and keep them from running off into the interior. In the southern US, African slavery was used to solve the labor shortage, and keep exploitation high(since no wages were paid), and consumer products such as tobacco and cotton cheap.
In actuality, Capitalism is highly unstable, made up of a series of crises, economic bubbles, booms, and eventual busts, termed [business cycles](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_cycle), that occur every few years, with varying intensity, but with most of the resulting burden shifted to the working class. The capitalist state often intervenes to prop up failing businesses, and bail out members of its own class.
The reason why most people are reticent to read anti-capitalist literature, and discouraged from participating in the class struggle through unionism and political movements, is due to **capitalist indoctrination** and ideology. In Marxist philosophy, [cultural hegemony](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_hegemony) is the domination of a culturally diverse society, by the ruling class who manipulate the culture of that society... the beliefs, explanations, perceptions, values, and mores, so that their imposed, ruling-class worldview becomes the accepted cultural norm; the universally valid dominant ideology, which justifies the social, political, and economic status quo as natural and inevitable, perpetual and beneficial for everyone, rather than as artificial social constructs that benefit only the ruling class.
Since the 1960s, there has been a [labor surplus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Productivity_and_Real_Median_Family_Income_Growth_in_the_United_States.png), due to an decreased demand for workers due to computers and automation, and an increased supply of workers(women, and low-paid manufacturing and agriculture in less-developed countries). The extra, unemployed workers make up a [reserve army of labor](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reserve_army_of_labour), keeping wages low, and desperation high. Increased worker productivity(due to computers and automation) mean that the surplus(the difference between worker productivity and wage paid), is historically higher than ever. This trend will only continue, and workers will naturally become more class conscious, as they see their exploitation increase, and their livelihood decrease.
Both feudalism and slavery were thought to be highly stable systems, and even they lasted hundreds of years until their overthrow.
####The Socialist Future
Communism is the highest developed stage of socialism wherein there is no state, no money, no class system. The means of production are owned by all and provide for everyone's needs. There are also presumably high levels of automation so [most do not have to work](http://imgur.com/yQpzb).
Socialism **can't exist within a capitalist system**, much like capitalism can't exist within a socialist system. There is either private ownership of the means of production or there isn't. Many socialists point to [directly democratic](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_democracy) [worker’s councils](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Workers'_council) as an ideal way to organize production, with gift economies for abundant goods, and labor voucher economies for scarce/luxury goods.
Past and present socialist/anarchist societies include - [Revolutionary Catalonia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolutionary_Catalonia), [Anarchist Aragon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarchist_Aragon), Shinmin Province in Korea/Manchuria, [Free Territory of Ukraine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Territory), The [Bavarian Soviet Republic](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bavarian_Soviet_Republic), The [Paris Commune](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_commune), The Zapatista controlled areas of Chiapas (current day), [Magonista Baja California](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magonista_rebellion_of_1911), [Shanghai People's Commune](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai_People%27s_Commune), [Rojava](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rojava) (current day), [Communist Marinaleda](http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/20/marinaleda-spanish-communist-village-utopia), [USSR](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_Union) (debated)
[Revolutionary](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolutionary_socialism) vs [Evolutionary](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reformism) socialism, [Economic planning](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planned_economy) with [labor vouchers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labour_voucher) vs. [Market socialism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_socialism), are a few debated topics within socialism.
[Branches of socialism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Types_of_socialism)
[Why are communists against markets?](https://gist.github.com/tchoulihan/a0104a9bd921df21bb71)
[Why do communists dislike liberals?](https://www.reddit.com/r/communism101/comments/4uaxjf/whats_the_deal_with_communists_hating_liberals/)
*****
Introductory videos:
[3 minute intro to Marxism](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vz3eOb6Yl1s)
[10 minute intro to Karl Marx](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSQgCy_iIcc) --- (Reminder for newcomers that private property refers exclusively to the means of production, not your home and other possessions which are considered personal property)
[Introduction to Marxism by Professor Richard D. Wolff](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9Whccunka4) (absolutely essential, the best video we can show newcomers to socialism)
[Socialism for Dummies by Professor Richard D. Wolff](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysZC0JOYYWw) (necessary for north americans)
[Karl Marx and Marxism - BBC documentary by Stuart Hall](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8bdndigRA8)
[Introduction to Anarchism by Noam Chomsky](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_Bv2MKY7uI)
[Chomsky on capitalism #1](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUzquEya6Lw)
[Chomsky on capitalism #2](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FHNMZbnvYU)
[Chomsky on american or right-libertarianism](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVt7U2YIgZs)
[Against Capitalism by Jerry Cohen](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJtSXkZQf0A)
[Capitalist exploitation explained](https://youtu.be/-w12bkm9g8o?t=3m18s)
Modern introductory books:
Socialist books starter pack (torrent)
[magnet:?xt=urn:btih:6980fde654f217ec9c81b30eab1ca3a13bbbca1e&dn=Socialist+books+starter+pack&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.leechers-paradise.org%3A6969&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Fzer0day.ch%3A1337&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Fopen.demonii.com%3A1337&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.coppersurfer.tk%3A6969&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Fexodus.desync.com%3A6969]()
[Danny Katch - Socialism…. Seriously](https://kat.cr/socialism-seriously-a-brief-guide-to-human-liberation-danny-katch-2015-epub-t11865751.html)
[Paul D’Amatto - the meaning of Marxism](https://kat.cr/the-meaning-of-marxism-paul-d-amato-2014-epub-t10406804.html)
More books / essays:
[Albert Einstein - Why Socialism?](http://monthlyreview.org/2009/05/01/why-socialism/)
[Engels - Principles of Communism](https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1847/11/prin-com.htm) (A great glossary of socialist terms)
[Engels - Socialism: Utopian and Scientific](http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1880/soc-utop/index.htm)
[Marx/Engels - The Communist Manifesto](http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/)
[Marx - Wage Labour and Capital](https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1847/wage-labour/)
[Rosa Luxemburg - Reform or Revolution](http://www.marxists.org/archive/luxemburg/1900/reform-revolution/index.htm)
[Lenin - The Three Sources and Three Component Parts of Marxism](https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1913/mar/x01.htm)
[Lenin - A liberal professor on Equality](https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1914/mar/11.htm)
[Lenin - State and Revolution](https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1917/staterev/)
[Lenin - “Left-Wing” Communism: an Infantile Disorder](https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1920/lwc/)
[Lenin - Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism](https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1916/imp-hsc/)
[Eugene Debs - Capitalism and Socialism](https://www.marxists.org/archive/debs/works/1912/1912-capsoc.htm)
Academic books on socialist economics:
[Cockshott and Cottrell - Towards a New Socialism](http://ricardo.ecn.wfu.edu/%7Ecottrell/socialism_book/new_socialism.pdf)
History books:
[Howard Zinn - A Peoples History of the United States](http://www.historyisaweapon.com/zinnapeopleshistory.html)
[CLR James - The Black Jacobins](http://www.ouleft.org/wp-content/uploads/CLR_James_The_Black_Jacobins.pdf)
[John Reid - The Ten Days that Shook the World](https://www.marxists.org/archive/reed/1919/10days/10days/)
[George Orwell - Homage to Catalonia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homage_to_Catalonia)
[Trotsky - History of the Russian Revolution](https://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1930/hrr/)
[Huey P. Newton - Revolutionary Suicide](https://www.amazon.com/Revolutionary-Suicide-Penguin-Classics-Deluxe/dp/0143105329)
Socialist films:
[Reds(1981)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082979/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1), [Salt of the Earth(1954)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047443/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1), [Pride(2014)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3169706/?ref_=nv_sr_4), [Snowpiercer(2013)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1706620/?ref_=nv_sr_1), [Libertarias(1996)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113649/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1), [The Trotsky(2009)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1295072/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1), [Battleship Potemkin(1925)](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Battleship_Potemkin)
Credit to /u/gab91, /r/socialism, /r/socialism_101, /r/communism101.

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Market socialism is an **extremely fringe view** among socialists. So, why do some people(even socialists) think we need markets?
Remember that this is a **distributional** problem : we have a bunch of goods and services that we need to distribute to people.
Markets are **one way** to do that, and the primary way under capitalism. Markets are based on two things:
* **Individual profit**: IE, buying low, selling high, and ignoring the effect of the transaction on others(externalities).
* **Commodification of every resource** (even people).
Labor is one such commodity, that is bought for cheap, and it's results sold for high (IE profit).
### History of markets
Markets only became the primary way to distribute goods *within the last 500 years*. For the vast majority of human history, rituals, harvest festivals, a group of elders deciding fair distribution, or communal decision-making accomplished what the market does today. Writers like Plato and Aristotle detested markets(small-scale trade within cities and between nation-states at that time), because they witnessed how the individualistic profit motive worked to **destroy the community**.
Markets, through the **commodification of every resource**(including human beings), destroy the community in the following ways: they promote generational wealth hoarding, increasing inequality, treating people as objects, monopolistic practices(price-fixing, dumping, colluding), rent-seeking, informational failure(over/under production), booms/busts/business cycles, negative externalities(affecting the environment and third parties), unpaid labor(such as housework, and childcare), human exploitation(slavery and wage-slavery, prostitution), large-scale imperialism(Such as in Africa, South America, and Asia post 1700s) demerit goods(encouraging for-profit drug use), inefficient and incorrect valuation, artificially high barriers to entry for many sectors.... in short, they result in an antagonistic relationship between a working class, and an owning/wealth hoarding class.
### What do we replace markets with?
You'll hardly see any Marxist advocating markets as a distribution system, because of that individualistic profit motive. Most of us advocate for **democratically planned economies** with labor vouchers, or **gift economies** in goods that are widely abundant. For a great academic breakdown of how planned economies would work, I suggest [Cottrell - towards a new socialism](http://ricardo.ecn.wfu.edu/~cottrell/socialism_book/new_socialism.pdf).
### What's wrong with market socialism?
The argument for market socialism basically states that we somehow outlaw the commodification of labor, but retain markets. Even if the the market were socially controlled and commodification of labor were *somehow* outlawed, it would still allow hoarding of wealth, individual profit motive over collective good, and emphasize monetary incentives over human ones.
Market enterprises have one goal, increasing profit and market share. What would prevent a coop from **polluting a river** that people use, if they're able to cut corners and extract a larger profit?
What would prevent a small group of people from accumulating wealth and using it for individualistic motives? Maybe they won't be legally able to exploit a labor force, but they will still try to get away with it, to satisfy the profit motive.
Finally, there is the market socialist principle that somehow we stop treating labor as a commodity, but we continue to treat *everything else* like one. Natural resources are one such thing we should not be treating as a commodity, which they would be under a market system.
Market socialism in a predominantly capitalist society has a historical name: **utopian socialism**. Engels, in [Socialism: Utopian and Scientific](https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1880/soc-utop/index.htm), explained how a few of the early socialist reformers such as Fourier and Owen nobly tried to set up idealistic isolated islands of socialism, in the early stages of the industrial revolution. These all failed, both because they relied on capitalist enterprises for materials and means, and because they were outcompeted by capitalists who did a better job of extracting a higher profit from their workforce. Engels stated that as the class contradictions become more absurd, *The mode of production rises in rebellion against the form of exchange*, IE, the socialized force of production(the working class) rises up against the individualism of the market.
### How do we deal with scarce goods, and getting paid? A: Labor vouchers
Labor vouchers would replace money as a way to govern demand for non-abundant goods.
Labor vouchers are different from money in that:
1) they are valued in **time**, not an arbitrary substance or thing.
2) they are attached to a person/family, and can't be traded.
3) are destroyed after they're exchanged for goods/services from the democratic workers council organization(I usually call it the pool)
In books like I like linked above, goods/services are valued and labor vouchers are based on **labor time**, and that book provides good calculations for how to value labor time for various things. Instead of getting paid a certain amount per hour, you would simply receive something that proves your *hours worked*.
Likely there would also be a kind of basic income of labor vouchers, to make sure everyone gets a fair share of the distribution of food and housing and such(this could be seen as accounting for unpaid labor done in the home). Since they are attached to a person/family, labor vouchers prevent wealth accumulation being handed down to further generations.