Megan Gillespie

Chaquita Boyd
English 111
March 29th, 2015
Socialism vs. Communism
Many people dont realize the differences between socialism and communism, its hard to
because they are alike in so many ways. Many people also have to dig deep to get a better
understanding of this. In order to understand how they are different, as well as alike, you need to
know a few other political terms. All people need to be informed on what socialism and
communism are, the main ideas they share, and how carrying these ideas out makes them
different, because the government runs the people in todays world.
First off, lets talk about Capitalism. Capitalism is by book definition, an economic and
political system in which a country's trade and industry are controlled by private owners for
profit, rather than by the state. This basically explains billion dollar industries paying their
workers minimum wage, because they are private owners. Many people consider this good, or
rewarding for people that have worked hard for what they have earned. On the other side,
privately owned means anyone (which could be thousands to millions) below the private owner
dont have a say in their financial situations. Communism and socialism both go against this
idea, but in different ways.
Socialism uses the resources of society to meet peoples needs, equally. It only focuses on
the economy, not political issues. There would be free education, health care, free utilities, which
means even free gas. Production would be owned by all of society. In socialism the majority of
the people rules, everyone is as equal as possible, down to everyone getting paid the same wage

hourly. This means the Cardiologist gets paid the same amount of money as the paper boy.
Everything that an individual needs in society would be provided for them through others in the
society. Many people wonder if this would work long term, as psychologists have stated we have
a natural need for human competition, which would make this hard. Although this seems
unobtainable, there are countries still today that are striving to achieve the state of socialism.
Communism, on the other hand is extreme socialism. It carries all of the same concepts
and ideas; having no state, no social class and striving for equality just as socialism does.
Countries such as China have claimed to be communist but still have 42% of their population
complain about inequality. This is ironic considering communism is supposed to differ from
socialism mainly because socialism is for the economy, as to communism focusing both on the
economic and political situations in the state.
The other reason why communism differs so much from socialism is because
communism enforces their beliefs to the extreme. Back to capitalism, socialist can tolerate it but
communist strongly disagree with the capitalist theory, in fact theres no tolerance for it. Socialist
actually think that you can benefit from a capitalist society, as long as it is controlled by a
centralized planning system. That alone is a large reason scholars think socialism is easier
obtained than communism.
Both socialism and communism seem like good ideas, but its debatable as to whether
either socialism or communism have succeeded completely in the past or present. Capitalism
leans on socialist ideas, still having a firm structure in capitalist theories and ideas. Having
knowledge of the differences and similarities between communism and socialism is important in
todays world, because understanding other governments is important for America, our allies,
and our trade.

Cite Sources
"What Is the Difference between Socialism and Communism?" WiseGEEK. N.p., n.d. Web. 07
Apr. 2015.
"China's Government May Be Communist, but Its People Embrace Capitalism." Pew Research
Center RSS. N.p., 10 Oct. 2014. Web. 07 Apr. 2015.