How To Explain Socialism Clearly In a Way That Actually Persuades People - Comedian and writer Danny Katch

Excerpted from here.

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This is a long, boring, unenlightening conversation between two Socialists patting each other's back. Neither of them are actually able (or perhaps willing) to accurately explain either Socialism or Capitalism, instead relying on well-worn tropes and bumper sticker slogans. This isn't surprising, since the very title of the article suggests that there is a way to sell Socialism. 

Socialism doesn't sell, so Socialists sell something else. They sell class envy, greed for other peoples' money, and a utopian vision of peace and goodwill to everyone because government will give us everything. 

Socialism is a religion for the irreligious.

In any case, there is little that interests us here, with the exception two things. One, the irony of a Socialist selling his book about Socialism...

"Danny Katch is the author of the most accessible and entertaining existing introduction to socialist ideas, Socialism…Seriously"

...and two, Mr. Katch's definition of Socialism and Capitalism:

“Socialism is a society whose top priority is meeting all of its people’s needs, ranging from food, shelter, and health care, to art, culture, and companionship. In contrast, capitalism only cares about any of that basic human necessities stuff to the extent that money can be made of it.”

Let's spend some time unpacking these errant definitions.

"Socialism is a society..." Socialism is a government power structure.

"...whose top priority..." A government that has that much power would be able to change its priorities at a whim. And Socialists with power inevitably implement pogroms against dissenters, resulting in millions slaughtered.

"...is meeting all its people's needs..." And the government decides what you need. Also, meeting all people's needs can only be accomplished by confiscating everyone's wealth and redistributing it. Thus, a productive person loses his incentive to produce and a non-productive person lives at the expense of others. High skill and advanced training have no virtue. Intelligence and innovation have no virtue. Ultimately, in the "worker's paradise," labor itself has no virtue. 

"...capitalism only cares..." Neither Socialism nor Capitalism care about anything, because they're not persons, they're power structures. A power structure only does what its power brokers want it to do. If the power brokers are evil, the structure will do evil. And even worse, what one might consider evil another might consider good. 

Lastly, capitalism is not a system of government. Nor is it a system of economics. Capitalism is simply the voluntary, legal exchange of value between private parties. Mr. Katch's definition of Capitalism is a caricature, designed to inflame the proletariat to overthrow the bourgeois. 

He does what all Socialists do: Spread agitprop.