Internet taxation is on the way!

David Sanders dsuzukisanders at gmail.com
Wed Apr 7 19:36:40 BST 2010


> source software (ie; Linux) then Redhat, the company, wouldn't exist.
> There is absolutely nothing Socialist about open source.  In fact is
> more Capitalist than Closed Source.
>

As with a lot of Americans, you are conflating socialism with
communism (Marx/Lenin's foolish ideas of socialism as a gateway to
communism notwithstanding). There is nothing in any pure socialist
doctrine which forbids profit-making enterprise, as you can see from
the type of socialism practised in England throughout the 60s and
early 70s.

Certainly my preferred form of socialism revolves around the idea of
legislated "fairness" (unions, co-operative ownership) in a system of
commerce which outwardly resembles capitalism. Thus both progress and
profit are possible without the moral relativism inherent in a pure
capitalist system which practises "trickle-down" free market
fundamentalism.

The wikipedia page is a mine of badly researched drivel, but if you
want to read some modern socialism you could do far worse than
something like George Monbiot's Age Of Consent.



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