Abraham Lincoln stated that "government exists for the purpose of doing for the people, those things which the people cannot do for themselves." Of course, now, we are no longer living in the middle of the 19th Century. However, some realities/concepts of government and society stay with us. They do not change. Nevertheless, governments change. Societies change. Do needs change? The basic ones do not. Below, I have from the Bing Dictionary, three definitions for socialism. Below the definitions are two quotes from 2 famous political leaders from the annals of history. Though they were diametrically opposed in political philosophy, both are still influencing millions.
1. Socialism is a political system of communal ownership: a political theory or system in which the means of production and distribution are controlled by the people and operated according to equity and fairness rather than market principles.
2. A political movement based on principles of socialism, typically advocating an end to private property and to the exploitation of workers
3. A stage between capitalism and communism: in Marxist theory, the stage after the proletarian revolution when a society is changing from capitalism to communism, marked by pay distributed according to work done rather than need.
"Government is instituted to protect property of every sort. This being the end of government, that alone is a just government,which impartially secures to every man, whatever is his own."
James Madison (1751-1836)
Father of the Constitution for the USA, 4th US President
"We are Socialists, we are enemies of the capitalistic economic system for the exploitation of the economically weak, with it's unfair salaries, with it's unseemly evaluation of a human being according to wealth and property instead of responsibility and performance and we are all determined to destroy this system under all conditions."
Adolf Hitler (1889-1945) German Nazi Dictator
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