i actually don't know why socialism is a good idea

Submitted by twovests at February 27, 2020, 5:18 PM in vote_satan (edited at March 19, 2020, 2:37 PM)

ellynu wrote at February 28, 2020, 3:24 AM

I'm gonna be that person who recommends reading Marx because it provides a bit of a different answer than the ones already given. (Plus its the answer I'd give anyways I guess :P)

The Communist Manfiesto is a good introduction. There's Capital. A Critique of Political Economy, (Volume 1 in particular was completed while he was alive) which is a bit large, but its pretty good and still incredibly relevant. Socialism: Utopian and Scientific talks about a distinction made in a lot of Marx and Engels' writing.

These writings use the terms socialism and communism interchangeably (as opposed to some of the other answers here) because of a fundamental difference in perspective. It's one that is talked about in the first and third writing I linked, and somewhat indirectly in the second.

ellynu wrote at February 28, 2020, 3:29 AM

Note that the critiques laid out in Capital in particular are fundamentally as true about the Soviet Union or the PRC as they are about the US, for example.