Read the following passage and answer the questions given below.
What is Socialism? It is a doctrine that calls for public rather than private ownership or control of property and natural resources. According to the socialist view, individuals do not live or work in isolation but live in cooperation with one another. Further, everything that people produce is in some sense a social product, and everyone who contributes to the production of a good is entitled to a share in it. Society as a whole, therefore, should own or at least control property for the benefit of all its members.
In this way, socialism contradicts the basic idea of capitalism which is based on private ownership of the means of production and free play of market in determining what is to be produced and who is to be given a share of the produce. Socialists complain that capitalism necessarily leads to unfair and exploitative concentrations of wealth and power in the hands of the relative few. The rich then use their wealth and power to’ reinforce their dominance in society.
Because such people are rich, they may choose where and how to live, and their choices, in turn, limit the options of the poor. As a result, terms such as individual freedom and equality of opportunity may be meaningful for capitalists. But for the working people, who must do the capitalists’ bidding if they are to survive, they can only hollow. As socialists see it, true freedom and true equality require social control of the resources that provide the basis for prosperity in any society.
Socialists also believe that given such unequal distribution of resources, there cannot really be genuine free competition as the rich and powerful manage to tilt the balance in their favour by hook or crook.
1) What is socialism?
2) What is the basic idea of capitalism?
3) what is the complaint of socialists about capitalism?
4) In the view of socialists, what is the basis for prosperity in any society?
5) What are the disadvantages of capitalism?
