32、How a socialist country develops advantages of the socialist system

April, 2004

Socialism and capitalism are two different social systems which have different guiding ideologies and core principles for adjusting interpersonal relationship. Those that can improve the development of the society in a capitalist country can only be taken as a reference rather than as true saying to follow. Just as treating different diseases uses different prescriptions, taking wrong medicine will only be just the opposite.

The core principles for adjusting interpersonal relationship between socialist system and capitalist system are different, so are their paths of development. To understand their paths of development, we must firstly understand their core principles. In my opinion, their guiding ideologies and core principles are as follows:

The guiding ideology and the core principle of capitalist system are as follows:

According to their own conditions and the environment provided by the society, every individual in capitalist country produces their own desires for life and the society and then produces their own life goals and directions in life. In the capitalist society, everyone is respected and encouraged to go forward according to their own goals and directions, but everyone must be responsible for their own behaviours. The society will not interfere with anyone nor assume any responsibility. It only provides minimum basic protection for everyone. Everything depends on their own, and the life rule of ‘survival the fittest’ is followed in the society.

The guiding ideologies and core principle of socialist system

Socialist system is a social system in which people are masters of their own affairs. After people hold the state power, starting from the fundamental interests of the majority of the people, by adjusting the political, economic and other social relations, they are striving to produce the social relations between man and man, man and society ,man and nature and social environment that can meet the social needs of the majority of people and conform to their interests, and to further improve faster and more rapid favourable development and maximise their spiritual and material satisfaction. As a result, there will be a better world in which harmonious unity, mutual promotion and common development between man and man, man and society, man and nature are achieved.

The relationship between man and the society in socialist system is different from that of capitalist system.

The relationship between man and the society in capitalist system:

This is the most original, basic relationship between man and nature since life exists. It is a relationship between an individual and the society generated by imitating the relationship between animal and nature in the nature. It only wears a civilised overcoat, but in essence, it is of no difference from the one between animal and nature.

The capitalism society, however, is a social system centred on the individual. When people were born, the society will give everyone a small skating board with democracy, freedom and human rights .Everyone can hold the small skating board, and ride at their own will in the sea of bitterness. The distance one can ride only lies in their own abilities. Only a few people can ride out of the sea of bitterness and comes to the island, such as the big capitalists in this time. Some people get lost in the sea and become those oppose and harm the society. So in a capitalist country, the high crime rate is very high, especially the malignantly intentional crimes are horrible, causing great harm to the society. In order to arrive at some island or the other bank of victory, the vast majority of people, full of helpless fears in the law of the jungle struggle, paddle until they die, sink into the bottom of the sea.

The relationship between socialist system and the society:

Socialist system adjusts interpersonal relationship according to the rational aspect of human nature and from the macro and rational height. It develops social systems by meeting the interests of the majority. In other words, the minority whose interests are different from those of the majority must make concessions for the majority, so the whole society can be harmonious. When social systems are developed, in order to safeguard the interests of the majority, a few people must sacrifice their interests. That is to say, it is a social system that most people exercise dictatorship over a few people. When the interests of the minority conflict with those of the majority, the minority only have three choices: 1, they persist in safeguarding their own interests wilfully and arbitrarily while ignoring those of the majority. The majority will exercise dictatorship. 2. They can change themselves, join in the society, make concessions for the majority, and keep the harmonious relationship and unity between man, between man and society, between man and nature. 3. They can leave the society and the country for other society and country to live.

The principle of socialism is to consider the whole society and the whole country as the most advanced means of transportation. It is like a huge aircraft carrier, taking all the people in the society to the bright world and to victory. Everyone in our society is a spare part on the carrier, it asks each of the parts can keep harmonious with the whole carrier. All people should take concerted action, make concerted efforts together to the bright world and to victory. Thus, a socialist country, if properly adjusted, can create infinite social benefits, overcome all difficulties and achieve any goal.

Since the socialist country uses reason, reason and science in adjusting the relationship between man and society, it adjusts the relationship globally and generally, which is the charm and superiority of socialist system. Therefore, compared with capitalism, it is an advanced social system. When developing any system, consider any problem, we take the priority of sociality, overall, majority and historical orientation, and then consider humanity, individuality, uniqueness and locality. Of course, we do not completely ignore, sacrifice humanity, individuality, uniqueness and locality, but put their interests in the secondary position. Without violating the overall, we should also take humanity, individuality, uniqueness and locality into full account. However, we cannot sacrifice the interests of the majority due to humanity, individuality, uniqueness and locality. Only in this way can we give full play to socialist superiority, not be dominated by external factors, make clear judgment, and resist any interference of bad thoughts l generated internally or externally.

Socialist society regulates social relations among people by taking the society as a whole, paying attention to the harmony and unity among every person in this society, the society, and the nature, so as to achieve the social realm and social relations with harmony between heaven and people. We can avail the harmony with the nature and society through self-regulation and self-effort. Society serves for everyone with individuals also contributing to the society, therefore, man and the society, man and man have formed the harmonious, rational, and peaceful relationship in which people take what they need and contribute what they can do. When the individual interest clashes with community interest, the individual can maintain harmony with the society through self-change. When the interests of the majority conflict with the social interests, we can maintain the harmony of both interests by changing the relationship between man and society through the adjustment of political and economic order.

As for the socialist aircraft carrier, because there are no successful examples, we only try, test and debug it according to its principles. We do not reach the normal sailing state, so various defects and contradictions will appear in the process of debugging. As a member of the society, we should understand and tolerate defects and contradictions. After all, our starting point which is to liberate the whole mankind is good. It is inevitable for us to take some detours. As long as debugging the carrier is completed, it will sail formally. We can quickly catch up with any one of the world's advanced developed countries, I believe we all can see this day. This is not out of reach but just around the corner.

With the development and popularisation of information technology, the central government can realise its unified management of the finance in state-owned enterprises. However, only recently the requirement can be met, and it is the right time. With the popularisation of Internet technology, and the enhancement of our productivity, the production relation of our socialist country also needs to be made with corresponding adjustment, which is consistent with the great theory that relations of production must conform to the development of productivity.

1. Political power in the hands of the people can solve our security problem.

2. The united finance management of the central government, the central government investment can solve the problems in fund, employment, and development.

3. China’s positive, mature socialist market has been basically completed and is gradually connecting with the world. With the market, the operation and management of our enterprises can resort completely to the market, allowing the reasonable, healthy competition in the market to determine enterprises’ decline and prosperity, there is no need of being too worried about them.

If the above problems are solved, all other ones will be easily solved. The socialist aircraft carrier can smoothly sail and run faster and faster. We will be more and more powerful and become the most powerful country in the world soon. All the problems, such as lay-off, unemployment, the gap between rich and poor, the gap between urban and rural areas, the problem of Taiwan and the issue of Diaoyu Islands will be conquered without a single fight.

Considered from the perspective of the problems in real life, since the economy in a capitalist country can be developed, the capitalist system is really good in a sense and worth learning. This is undeniable in spite of its drawbacks.

On the other hand, the ‘big-pot’ system and the old mode of planned economy were implemented in our country in the first years when the PRC was established. It was the fact that the low productivity at that time was exposed. Based on the above two points, we can make the following analysis.

Why did the ‘big-pot’ system and the old mode of planned economy fail? What can the socialist market economy implemented in China recently and the economic system performed in the capitalist country have been telling us?

It is people that achieve all the good systems, so we must firstly understand people for the success of our career. We should know what people are, under what circumstances we can be the most enthusiastic and creative and create the greatest social value, and what people really need.

All the systems are completed by people, and their purpose is to make people have a better life.

We can make a comparison among the capitalist system with the market economy performed in China after we carried the policy of reform and opening up to the outside world and the old mode of planned economy so that we can find out their fundamental difference.

What did the society provide for the labourers with the ‘big-pot’ system and the old mode of planned economy? Let’s recall the situation at that time. Everyone’s salary was basically fixed. They could get a similar salary regardless of their performance at work. Individuals were not encouraged to other things except their own work by the government. The houses were provided by their working units and the state was responsible for all the expenditure on going to see doctors and children going to school. What’s more, consumption was controlled by the state.

In this model, the state was responsible for nearly all the problems of workers in their lives, so workers did not need to assume any risk nor the right to do so.

What did the society with market economy and capitalist system provide for labourers? It provided free trade and commercial competition. What did the state provide for those private enterprises and self-employed people? It provided policies and regulations. Similar to a capitalist country, everyone who plunged into the commercial sea is given a small wooden board of ‘conducting any commercial activity within the scope of law’. Those self-employed and private entrepreneurs are responsible for all their commercial actions and the state did not provide anything else. Why has China’s private economy flourished?

So are the capitalist countries. They also give each citizen mall wooden board of ‘conducting any commercial activity within the scope of democracy, freedom, human rights, and law’ and made them to ride freely in the boundless commercial sea.

During the early period of China’s socialism, the state provided people with the real things—housing, education, medical care, and salaries.

However, what market economy and capitalist system have brought to people is the vague, abstract concept of ‘conducting any commercial activity within the scope of law’, rather than any real things. Why do people still scramble for them? Aren’t they crazy? No, it is true that market economy and capitalist system do not supply people with real materials, but it gives people an environment for individuals to develop freely and to realise their own value and personal ideals. In this environment, people may fail, but they are more likely to exert their potentials, achieve their personal ideals and maximum value, and get more opportunities to develop.

In view of this, to make every worker exert their maximum labour productivity, what they need is an environment that can stimulate their potentials, rather than the limited material conditions. This is the experience that has been summarised by Chinese people with their blood and tears since the development of the cause of communism. This is a profound lesson to bear in mind by every communist at the initial stage of socialism.

However, the environment for the working people in the socialist country is different from that of the capitalist country. Why? Capitalist system services for the capitalists, so what it provides is the environment in which capitalists can exploit more surplus value.

On the other hand, the environment in a socialist country serves for the common working people, and for their more beautiful, harmonious, prosperous, peaceful life. Due to their different service targets, the content and significance of the environments are quite different.

I. Educational Environment

Education is of decisive significance for individual, family, race, and state; it can directly determine an individual’s social status and productivity. The average education level of a country determines the strength of a country, prosperous or declined. The education received by an individual during the initial twenty years from he or she was born impacts all her or his life. The educational environment refers to the educational condition that the society can provide for every citizen. The vast majority of capitalist countries regard education as an industry that can increase in the gross national product and commercialise it. As to the effects of education on individuals, it is indeed valuable. Education is a tool that can produce more productive labourers for capitalists and its purpose is to satisfy capitalists’ need for talents who can make more benefits for them. That’s just so. They also have compulsory education, but the knowledge they educate people is only the basic knowledge that a labourer should have. They impose high tuitions and take strict control on the education in operation, management, business, trade, production skills, which may pose a threat to their social status. The common people cannot afford it, so they can only work as advanced productive tools and are exploited. It is very hard for them to become bosses.

However, the employment environment in a socialist country is quite different. The state is one in which all the working people master their own affairs, the regime is one which serves the people and the education institutions are established for people to create more excellent workers. All of them should be serving the people rather than the machinery for capitalists to produce the exploited generation after generation.

Thus, the educators and education institutions in a socialist country should do research on such a question: how to impart the knowledge that can improve the productivity to the ordinary people in the simplest, cheapest, rapidest, most widely spread, and most effective manner. To improve the gross national product is the work of entrepreneurs, rather than the task of educational institutions. They are two different things and cannot be confused. The educational institutions set up by the people are aimed at serving the people with their heart and soul. They are not the machinery used to directly improve the gross national product and increase the economic growth rate. This is the biggest difference between socialism and capitalism in education.

II. Employment Environment

The easiest and most effective way to solve unemployment issues is to create new enterprise and establish a new plant. With these, it’ll create more surplus value and profit. The capitalists will establish new enterprise and a new plant in a capitalist society. It is the politician’s responsibility to deal with unemployment rather than the entrepreneur’s thing. It will surely raise contradiction in the capitalist countries. Government needs to solve the problem of employment. Capitals are controlled by capitalist whose purpose is to earn more money instead of considering the problem of employment. So solving the problem of unemployment and development in capitalist countries is fluctuating with market changes, and government has no rights to intervene directly.

While the socialist country is in public ownership as the main body of the country, the situation is completely the opposite. Politicians should all have the assets of state-owned enterprises, can directly solve the employment and development problems, where the need to solve the employment problem is where to invest, and where the need to solve the problem of development can arrive where to invest. Of course, the investment is in order to profit, but it can also solve the problem of employment and development. Profit is the most important, employment is the auxiliary function, shooting two hawks with one arrow. But many of our state-owned enterprises despite the losses to the state loans, wages will continue to have the order reversed, this behaviour is one of the simplest economic mistake our politicians make on state-owned assets, resulting in waste of capital, not producing its due benefits, not realising the due function.

However, at the beginning of reform and opening up to the outside, as discussed in other articles of the author, the central government did not really hold the economic power of state-owned enterprises, so it was impossible to achieve what I have said—solving the problems of employment and development directly. The superiority of the socialist system did not play its due role in solving the issues of employment and development. Consequently, lots of related problems arise, such as triangle-relational debits, lack of vitality, loss of state-owned assets, losses, embezzlement, corruption, illegal charges, disunity among people, etc. I have ever published an article on the internet to make the following suggestions to the government: the central government should immediately take over the state-owned enterprises, give up the right to manage the state-owned enterprises, and close hopeless and lost enterprises. The state-owned capital should be used in the pace in most need rather than waste in those enterprises that make losses. The government should directly solve the problems of employment and development and carry forward the superiority of socialist system.

III. Security Environment

It is said that the security problem is a simple and old problem that officers and soldiers catch a thief. Since the country existed, the security problem has been focused on by all the dynasties and governments in the slave society, the feudal society, the capitalist society, or the socialist society. It seems nothing special. But if we think so, it may be completely wrong.

In fact, security problems are various social factors including politics, economy, ethics, morality, and education that are reflected in the behaviour of people, and all the various conflicts between man and man, man and society are also reflected in the security issues. The security problem seems to be about officers and soldiers catching a thief, but actually it is to solve all the conflicts on the contradiction between man and man, man and society in various fields. If the essential problem cannot be solved appropriately, thieves cannot be caught. On the contrary, they will be more and more. If the essential problem cannot be solved appropriately, thieves will be less and less, eventually no thieves need to be caught. The real thieves are not in the streets, nor in the mountains, but in the hearts of the people. The shortcomings in the political system and defects in the economic system or the shortage of education and the bad social environment will lead to moral and ethical conflicts. To a certain extent, they will affect social order and social stability.

If we fail to realise this point and are blind to catch the thieves, maybe one day, when you suddenly wake up, you may find all the people around you are thieves. What should you do if even you become a thief unconsciously? Kind people find it difficult to make a choice.

The thieves who break the law and commit crimes should be caught. It is an issue worthy of studying and thinking over on how to eliminate the thieves from the basic system, stop them from the source, and eliminate them in people’s hearts. There are fundamental differences between the socialist system and capitalist system in this issue.

Why must we build a harmonious society? Why is the public ownership better than private ownership?

Firstly, I need to clarify a problem, that is, the state capitalism and the individual capitalism.

In state capitalism, because all the people in a nation cannot effectively manage the state-owned assets possessed by all people, nor effectively maintain and increase the value of the state-owned assets, they authorise the government and the state under the leadership of the Communist Party of China to exert the ownership right of all the state-owned assets on behalf of them.

The property law of PRC clearly stipulates that all the state-owned assets possessed by the country shall be exerted by the state council. Thus, China currently is performing the state capitalism.

The state capitalism is an advanced form of socialism and communism. And it is the only right, feasible organisation form and also the only one proven by practice.

Other organisational forms of socialism and communism are fantastic, utopian socialism, and communism. They can only bring disasters, terrors, and evils to our mankind. We have experienced them.

The individual capitalism is one led by the Western countries, the core of which is advocating private capital.

The individual capitalism has its advantages and disadvantages. It is of significance in overthrowing and replacing the feudal dynasty. However, the wheel of history does not stop here, the science, human beings are making constant development in technology, culture, and civilisation. The serious drawbacks existed in the society of the individual capitalism are more and more obvious, so the individual capitalism is bound to be replaced by the state capitalism.