Socialism Can Work 2nd Edition

One basic economic principle that has always been true throughout human history is that when you willfully make a trade with someone, both parties will leave wealthier than before. This is because when someone has something you want, you need to give them something they want in exchange; The thing you want needs to be worth more to you than the thing you gave, regardless of the actual material value of it, otherwise the trade would be pointless. If someone is buying a service or product, the money they spent is worth less to them than the thing, while the money is worth more to the seller than the thing. If an idea, such as a song, is created by an artist, they created wealth out of thin air, because their idea has the potential to be purchased by people who think the song is worth more to them than the money required to buy it. If someone puts time and effort into a job to get money, the money is worth more to them than the time and effort put in, while the reverse is true for the employer. This is how wealth is created out of thin air, and there is not a fixed amount in the world. Wealth is a human creation, if society says currency is worth something, it is. Because a more prosperous society is one with the wealth to buy things that make life better, such as necessities, entertainment, things that do work for you, like dishwashers, so you can have more time for entertainment, etc., the ultimate goal of society should be to allow as much of this wealth creating activity, trade, as possible. People are wealthier when they have more of what they want, like the things that makes life enjoyable to them. This is what capitalism does, and why it is the best economic system. Socialism, on the other hand, means everyone owns everything. There is no property in a socialist economy; if someone has less then you, or something of lower quality, the government takes from you to compensate, no matter what. If you want to trade your time and labor for an amount of money worth more to you because it will allow you to trade for something that makes your life better, too bad, because that would mean you own more than other people in society; even though your extra work benefits society by creating more wealth (AKA helping in the effort to create something worth more to people than the resources it was made from, like an iPhone), it does not matter, everyone must be equal. Because of this, no one will be motivated to work harder, because even if you do .001% of the work that another person does, you will get the same amount of pay as them. The amount of work people do will gradually decrease as people realize this fact, and everyone will want to get their pay check for less work, since there is no decrease in their pay for working less, because everyone else is working for their money. As the amount of labor is rapidly dropping, the economy will grind to a halt, and there will be far less wealth in society, and people will get paid less and less, and everyone will be less happy and society less prosperous. You may think everyone will work to benefit society, but they will not because they see all the lazy people exploiting the system and not working for the same amount of money, and they will want to get a free ride too. If no one is motivated to work for their own prosperity, they will not work. The beauty of capitalism is that is transforms everyone's self interest into wealth and prosperity, because the only way to become wealthier is to make things people value and will make their life better. You then use that money to buy something someone worked hard (out of self interest) to make that makes your life better, and the cycle continues. If you want your life to be better, you must make someone else's better.