Oxford Union Debate - Socialism Does Not Work

[texas_ex2000]

Oxford Union Speech/Debate Daniel Hannam British MP

Excellent speech. I especially liked, "Don't make the mistake of judging socialism as a textbook theory but judging capitliasm by its necessary imperfect outcomes. Judge like to like in the real world." You don't have congressman like that over here in the US.

What I also think we forget is that capitalism, contrary to popular sentiment in the US, is considered the radical liberal economic system in history. If you believed in freedom and personal ownership and economic liberty, you were a subversive liberal radical. It wasn't until probably the Dutch in the late 17th Century where capitalism on any real scale started to take hold. Before then, feudalism and state/crown ownership of land was the universal system. I, frankly, prefer living in the modern enlightened age.

 

[Mr. Deez]

Excellent discussion, and I just subscribed to the Oxford Union's channel. It looks cool, and I love how the Brits debate. It's also refreshing to see the conservative cause advocated with a little intellectualism. That's so rare nowadays. Modern conservatism (in America at least) is usually advocated on the intellectual level of the WWF or NASCAR.

To be fair, this guy seems to build the strawman a little by attaching Marxist-style communism to socialism and beating it up, and it's obviously an easy target. I don't see many on the Left advocate for anything very close to actual Marxism. What I mostly see them advocate more resembles Fascism but without the nationalism. They usually advocate strong government control of the means of production but not government ownership of them, which is essential to communism.

For example, a single payer healthcare system isn't socialized medicine. It's Fascist medicine. The government sets all prices and completely regulates the practice of medicine. However, the doctors still own and operate private business enterprises. In a Marxist system, all hospitals would be government owned, and all doctors would be government employees.

In addition, he points to the difference between East and West Germany and North and South Korea to extol the virtues of capitalism as opposed to socialism. It’s not really a good parallel because South Korea and West Germany were not particularly capitalistic. They had large government sectors that regulated their private sectors – not shining examples of capitalism.

 

[texas_ex2000]

Here's a good one: Islam is not a peaceful religion. 2 to 1 thumbs down. Wow.

and another, God does exist.

 

[Larry T. Spider]

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[Mr. Deez]

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