So that was the first chapter.

Okay that was the first chapter of Socialism by Roswell Hitchcock. It was rather lengthy huh? I guess the future chapters I will chop up a little more so they are not so long. The older style of writing can be hard to wade through sometime. Thus far I have liked this book because I think it is pertinent to our modern economics. Socialism has been decried as this awful bogey man and that is not entirely fair. Just as Capitalism is not the saviour of us all neither is Socialism the end of the world. What is needed is a blend of both systems. We need controls on the systems that can destroy us like the financial system, as well as provide a social safety net for those who "fall down and can't get up". Socialism does not mean the elimination of freedom or democracy. If you think it does then you don't understand what it is. The governments and organizations that have passed themselves off as Socialist or communist have not really been either. They have been totalitarian regimes and police states.
To my way of thinking Socialism would be free and equal access to those things that WE decide are human rights. As intelligently advanced humans it is possible for us to decide how we want our resources and society to be set up and perpetuated. It is not some kind of physical law that requires us to do it this way. We can build it the way we want.
I will be posting chapter 2 next and I will try to shrink it up a little so it's not quite so lengthy. I hope someone is enjoying this.