Sociology

For this discussion board assignment, you should start with a brief summary of chapter 11. Your summary should be about 100-150 words and the major response should be at least 150 words so in total your discussion post should be at least 250 words. Then, write a response to one the following major post questions.

Major Post Question Options (Please select at least one question from the list below):

In what ways have the trends in religious beliefs in Canada and the United States been similar to those in other industrial societies? In what ways have they been different?
What is the most basic difference between capitalism and socialism? Why does difference on this single point make the theories/philosophies so fundamentally different?
Why do differences in ideology have so much greater an effect on industrial societies than they did in agrarian and horticultural societies?
In what ways do the mass media affect public perception and public opinion in industrial societies? In what way are they being challenged by bloggers and the Internet?
Major Post: Your original post should be at least 150 substantive words. When answering the question(s), you should attempt to critically engage with the literature. This means going beyond a summary of what the textbook says about the topic. Rather, you should use that as a starting point for your own contribution.

Minor Posts: You must also respond to at least two (2) of your classmates’ posts in a substantive manner. Response posts should be at least 150 words each. It is not acceptable to repeat information from your original post in your response post to a classmate. Your response posts should propel the conversation started by your classmate forward. Posts consisting only of “I agree” or “Hello X, I enjoyed your post,” and so forth will receive no credit.

ANSWER

The Most Basic Difference between Capitalism and Socialism

Socialism and Capitalism are economic systems that governments use to manage and regulate their economic resources and their means of production. The economic systems were entities that offered a structure that was used to define the social community. They serve as regulatory mechanisms that control different aspects of production and distribution, such as labor and capital. In socialism, the means of production are publicly owned, while in Capitalism, the means of production are owned and controlled by private individuals. The most fundamental difference between socialism and Capitalism is the government intervention and scope of government regulation in the economy. Ideally, the government offers a social and legal framework that controls the production and distribution of public goods and services, adjusts for externalities, income redistribution, and steadies the economy.

Capitalism has minimal government intervention as compared to socialism which has centralized economic planning. The government role is limited in capitalism due to the free market structure. In a socialism, private property ownership is limited since the idea of a free-market structure is excluded. For instance, in socialism, the workforce is employed by the government, while in Capitalism, the business owners are the employers. Therefore, in Capitalism, the government plays the role of a complementary and regulatory body. In contrast, in socialism, the government has a wide-ranging responsibility in many economic actions such as production and distribution.

The government role in an economy has made philosophies and theories fundamentally different due to the various arguments about the benefits and limitations of the government’s role in an economy. Contending economic theories and philosophies such as Marxian, Neoclassical and Keynesian have different approaches to government intervention. These theories and philosophies have analyzed government intervention in varying areas of the economy, such as entrepreneurs, labor, capital, information, and physical resources. Therefore, the theories and philosophies of the economy viewed how the government controlled these factors in different ways.