The economic isms are about relationship to production. There ARE characteristics that you’ll find in countries that operate under those isms, but the characteristics AREN’T the ism. With that said, we can talk about what capitalism and socialism are, simplified for the bird app.

Under capitalism, the worker sells their labor to the capitalist in order to gain access to the means of production for which to labor over. We have no say in what gets produced, how much of it is to be produced, and how long they’re to spend labor producing it.

Under socialism there is a fundamental change in relation to production, with workers now having control over them, and having democratic say over the aforementioned decisions about production. This socialism project is a temporary phase in a transition toward communism.

Communism is a stateless, classless, moneyless society that results as a consequence of the previous transitional socialist state resolving all contradictions that previously arose in society. Contradictions being things such as the inherent social aspect that is production and

and their private ownership, as well as ownership of the commodity produced in the production process.Once resolved, the capitalists are repressed, and the reactionary forces have been sorted into workers, then communism results. Communism is a consequence, not an implementation.

We mentioned there are characteristics you might find that aren’t the isms themselves. This generally refers to social welfare programs. Simply put, socialism’s not when the government does stuff, and to the extent it does, it’s to the benefit of the worker or the capitalist.

An analysis of the relationships that exists under the economic isms will leave you with a far better understanding of economics than what you’ll ever get from the liberal conception forced on you in school. Any questions, just ask.