Market Socialism

Socialism is an economic philosophy developed in 19th-century Europe that diagnosed many social ills—poverty, inequality, injustice, unemployment, lack of access to essential goods, and alienation of the worker class—as consequences of the capitalist system’s private ownership of the means of production. Premised on the moral philosophy of positive utilitarianism, socialism assumes that the greatest good for a society is knowable and can be intentionally designed to advance distributive justice for long-term social welfare without causing greater harm. There are two broad types of socialism: (1) nonmarket and (2) market. Both types seek to replace private ownership of capital with collective ownership, but the former is intolerant and the latter tolerant toward the participation of self-interested buyers and sellers in the transactions for production and distribution.

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