Socialism is the political face of a caring society. It is a system of thought which puts people first. By contrast, capitalism puts capital, or money first. Although capitalists would argue that by letting markets drive investment a more efficient social model is created which can be funded by private money, in reality, private money is interested only in profit and in people only to the extent that people can help to increase profits. Without the French social movements of the nineteenth century, spurred on principally by men like Henri de Saint Simon, who advocated a "brotherhood of man" to accompany the advances in industrial technology, and Pierre Joseph Prouddhon, who declared "property is theft", it would be a much poorer, far more exploitative world we lived in now than it already is. The recent debacle of the collapse of the free market shows quite clearly that capitalism is a runaway train that sooner or later runs out of track.
If we can imagine the political climate in France just prior to the French Revolution of 1789, we would see a horrific scene of social injustice where the few were over-provided for while the vast majority were left in miserable, disease-stricken poverty. When Marie Antoinette was told the people were revolting because they had no money for bread, she replied "Let them eat cake!" Such was the gap of understanding between the haves and the have nots, and so it always would have been, were it not for the progress of socialism which laid out the principle of basic human rights. Children should not be used as slaves, men and women should not be treated as faceless robots working in dangerous factories. There ought to be provision for the unemployed, the sick, the elderly. All should have the right to an education regardless of faith or nationality. These are principles which had to be fought for during the 1800s and which we all take for granted today.
The above summary may lead some to conclude that the work of the Socialist pioneers has been done, that we are all converts now to the socialist model, and that we no longer need to fight the fight for the underpriveleged. But this could not be further from the truth. The drive for ever increasing profits in an ever more competitive global economy means that the interest and livelihoods of ordinary men and women will continue to come under threat. Even now, companies are responding to falling profits as a result of the market crash by laying people off. It is taken for granted that unemployment is a necessary prerequisite for a recovery, while the misfortune faced by the millions pushed out of work through no fault of their own is completely glossed over. Without a modern socialist initiative on a par with our nineteeth century forebears, the world could return to a gap between haves and have nots as never seen before. This would lead to social instability and revolution.
The call around the globe now is for greater regulation of free markets, but this is simply a sop to worried investors, and nowhere near the mark as far as modern socialists are concerned, who held their hands up in horror as trillions of dollars were fed back to the very people who were responsible for the collapse of investment in the first place. Imagine how that money could have been used in the fight against poverty and disease! But the fact remains that so much of the world's population relies on the banking system that saving the monster which led to the financial calamity, though it might have been a bitter pill for many to take, was in the short term an absolute necessity. But having stabilised the position, the call now should be not for continued free, irresponsible investment, but for new socialist initiatives which will protect ordinary people. The challenge today is exactly as it was in eighteenth century France, to achieve equality and freedom for all, principles which though accepted universally in theory are not always apparent in practice. Large coroporations built on the backs of workers still look to those workers to make the first sacrifice in difficult times. Rousseau's famous cry that "man is born free, though he is everywhere in chains," can still be applied to many economic communities throughout the world.
Socialism is as important today as it has always been. It responds to the altruism which is a natural trait in all of us. The vast majority of people, if not all, would prefer to live in a fair, just and humane world. Only socialism can deliver that.