The 1990s was a decade without enemies for The United States. The Soviet Union fell, China was now our friend and Cuba was just an afterthought in the minds of most Americans. In this world without war capitalism evolved. Machines seized production and the jobs that remained were shipped overseas. This capitalism, known as globalization, in turn needs a new enemy, on that does not march under the banner of Islamic Extremism. That enemy must be a new kind of socialism, a socialism rooted in freedom as opposed to the tyranny that defined the so-called "communist" states of the 20th century.
The first thing that needs to occur for this new socialism to develop is to recognize the flaws of the current socialist model.
The first and most obvious flaw of socialism is the "dictatorship of the proletariat," the crux of Karl Marx's plan to create a communist utopia. Marx asserts in The Communist Manifesto that in order to create a communist state a transition period must first be undergone. During this period the communist party must lead the people into a new world using not good governance but instead an iron fist. Eventually, Marx furthers, the populace will forget all about property, money and greed and each village or city will be run around a storehouse of goods, from which each man will take only what he needs with no oversight whatsoever (literally from each according to his abilities to each according to his needs). Let me now just say (in case any socialists are unaware) that these dictatorships have been disastrous. From Soviet Russia to Maoist China to Castro's Cuba the only things these dictatorships created was starving masses and endless genocide.
While the dictatorship of the proletariat can, from a distance, be seen as the greatest obstacle to a successful socialist state, in reality it is actually the way that this dictatorship is spun by the opponents of socialism. Among these opponents is Ayn Rand who argues that socialism is, rather being an altruistic system by which wealth can bestowed upon all mankind, is nothing more than a method by which the socialist can force his desired world upon the masses. She is entirely correct, the socialist incarnates of the world have brought only misery to the world and have served the dictators more than the masses..
The solution to these problems of socialism embracing a bottom-up model as opposed to the to-down model used by governments. In short, rather than dictators distributing the wealth of a nation, socialist country should allow privater enterprise and property to continue their existence but, governments must guarantee that the workers have the right to bargain and that they, are, in fact, required to collectively bargain. The finances of every company should open to all of its employees at any time they request and regularly scheduled meetings should take place in which all of a company's employees, management and owners discuss the finances of the business. At these meetings, all those present will vote on exactly what the base pay for each department will be along with the pay scale within each department. Through embracing this democratic model as opposed to dictatorship, socialism can liberate itself from obscurity and once again challenge provide a legitimate alternative to oppressive capitalism.
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