but I suppose it does illustrate America's lack of a useful political vocabulary. Batra's use of the word "socialism" does not at all reflect the word, as it has been used by people who have called themselves "socialists." Batra apparently wants to use the word "socialist" to indicate something about "wealth transfer." But the forced extraction of value from workers threatened by starvation and armed guards (a situation not always uncommon in historical economies) represents a wealth transfer, against which the first socialists rebelled. So Batra uses the word without historical insight. In fact, his usage of the word is intended only to stir up controversy: no self-identified socialist will agree to that usage, nor will the conservatives, who have spent decades using "socialist" as if it were a synonym for "dictatorial" or "totalitarian."
Why Socialism?
by Albert Einstein
This essay was originally published in the first issue of Monthly Review (May 1949)
... nowhere have we really overcome .. "the predatory phase" of human development ... The economic anarchy of capitalist society as it exists today is .. the real source of the evil. We see before us a huge community of producers the members of which are unceasingly striving to deprive each other of the fruits of their collective labor — not by force, but on the whole in faithful compliance with legally established rules. In this respect, it is important to realize that the means of production — that is to say, the entire productive capacity that is needed for producing consumer goods as well as additional capital goods — may legally be, and for the most part are, the private property of individuals ... Private capital tends to become concentrated in few hands, partly because of competition among the capitalists, and partly because technological development and the increasing division of labor encourage the formation of larger units of production at the expense of smaller ones. The result of these developments is an oligarchy of private capital the enormous power of which cannot be effectively checked even by a democratically organized political society. This is true since the members of legislative bodies are selected by political parties, largely financed or otherwise influenced by private capitalists who, for all practical purposes, separate the electorate from the legislature. The consequence is that the representatives of the people do not in fact sufficiently protect the interests of the underprivileged sections of the population. Moreover, under existing conditions, private capitalists inevitably control, directly or indirectly, the main sources of information (press, radio, education). It is thus extremely difficult, and indeed in most cases quite impossible, for the individual citizen to come to objective conclusions and to make intelligent use of his political rights ...
there is only one way to eliminate these grave evils, namely through the establishment of a socialist economy, accompanied by an educational system which would be oriented toward social goals. In such an economy, the means of production are owned by society itself and are utilized in a planned fashion. A planned economy, which adjusts production to the needs of the community, would distribute the work to be done among all those able to work and would guarantee a livelihood to every man, woman, and child ...
http://www.monthlyreview.org/598einstein.php
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