Can socialism or capitalism work without the use of force?

Both capitalist and socialist societies seem to struggle with forced compliance, with dictators, coercion and corruption following suit (see Cuba, Russia, U.S. for a few examples). Is there a role for liberty in either system?

Official response from submitted

I think so: namely that a society can be constructed with liberty in the sense you mean it. I think society needs to strive and seek ways to achieve that. I dont think this is a speculative matter; no one can know whether it is possible or not, but that does not matter much. The point is to live in a society that seeks such a result, works at it, because that makes a society bearable and good as opposed to the deadend of a society - or its members - who have given up.

 

So the issue is to think through what basic changes in economic, politics, and culture are needed to support a libertuy-based system and then to pursue their realization.


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  • Sammy Davis
    commented 2017-01-28 22:19:58 -0500
    Thanks for the speedy and thoughtful response!
  • Sammy Davis
    tagged this with good 2017-01-28 22:19:57 -0500
  • Richard Wolff
    responded with submitted 2017-01-28 20:21:27 -0500
  • Sammy Davis
    published this page in Ask Prof. Wolff 2017-01-28 20:02:29 -0500

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