It seems a common refrain that socialist and communist governments are bad because they have ‘too much control’ over people’s lives. It is true that these governments do control certain things that capitalist governments do not. Capitalists governments instead give control to private interests, to capitalists. I wonder which way of doing things gives the average person more control.
The average person is not a capitalist but a worker. The average person has no legal control over a capitalist’s business, the capitalist owner makes all the decisions or hires others to make the decisions for them, always reserving the ability to make the final decision personally. The average person can beg and plead and even boycott, but ultimately the capitalist makes the decisions and can thoroughly disregard every plea before them. The capitalist can be forced into decisions with enough combined power from thousands or millions of average people, but such organization is difficult and often actively thwarted by agents hired by the capitalist.
The capitalist government ultimately does have the power to control the capitalists. It can set regulations for health and safety standards, and arrange subsidies to control prices. The average person, the worker, is not a part of the government, and the average government representative is not an average worker, but instead an average member of the upper class or even an average capitalist. The average person can easily be outspent by the rich when trying to run for public office, and so they do not have a realistic chance of becoming a representative. The representatives also have no requirement to heed the pleas of their constituents. They may worry about re-election, but they have many tools to secure votes that do not involve listening to and fighting for the interests of their constituency.
The average person therefore does not have any control over what products the capitalists make available to them, what prices the capitalists deem fair, etc. The average person simply goes to a store and is presented with options chosen by the capitalist and their wage-servants, and has to navigate the different options in order to survive. What the average person sees in a store is carefully calculated through marketing research to bring the most profits to the owning capitalists. The average person’s interests are only considered as a starting point. Those interests (cheap prices, good quality, workers treated well, materials responsibly sourced, etc.) are carefully shaved away, piece by piece, aspect by aspect, until the maximum profit is achieved.
On the other hand, in a socialist or communist country, many products, especially food and other necessities of life, are strictly controlled by the government. However, these governments are accessible to the average person, because elections and campaigns are restricted to prevent rich capitalists from coming along and spending millions on advertising and public relations campaigns to buy victory for their candidates. Socialist government representatives can be recalled by their constituents, so a representative must listen to and act upon the interests of their constituents, or they will be removed from office and replaced by someone who will.
Since socialist governments are accessible to and made up of average people, there need not be any worry about their aims and goals different from that of the average person. When the socialist government controls and provides food to people, they do not try to maximize personal profits but instead try to further the interests of the people, the condition for their being elected as representatives. The process is not easy or flawless, but those conducting it do so earnestly and learn as much as they can and teach others so that all will benefit.
So ask yourself. Who would you rather have controlling your access to food? Capitalists? Or a socialist government?
