If all basic needs were met (food, shelter, and medical), could socialism work (without the need for wars or famine to reduce the population)?
If all basic needs were met (food, shelter, and medical), could socialism work (without the need for wars or famine to reduce the population)?
I take huge exception to this. That is absolutely not the case in my experience. Poor people are often much more generous with their time and resources than rich people. Any given billionaire could give up 1% of their wealth to end hunger in their country, but they don’t. Rich people could give up their holiday homes and empty rental properties to end homelessness, but they don’t. And yet poor people will volunteer in food co-ops, donate to homeless shelters, work extra hours to provide for their families.
Capitalism is only around 300 years old, it is absolutely NOT a natural state of affairs for humans. It’s just another way of arranging the economy like mercantilism or socialism.