Socialism will mean Peace, Prosperity and Plenty

SOCIALISM MEANS common ownership by all the people of the factories, mills, mines, railroads, land and all the other instruments of wealth-production. Socialism means production of things to satisfy human needs, and not, as under capitalism, for sale and profit. Socialism means free access to and democratic management of the industries by the workers. 

FOR YOU, as an individual, socialism means a full, happy and useful life. It means the opportunity to develop all your faculties and latent talents. It means that, instead of being a mere wage-slave bought and sold in the labour market, an appendage to a machine, an automaton, a producer of wealth for the ruling class, you will take your place as a human being in a free society of human beings. As a wage worker, under capitalism your price is determined by what your labour power, as a commodity, will bring in the market. By and large, taking into account the ebb and flow of the labour market, you receive a living wage -- the minimum amount necessary to feed, clothe and house you and your family. What you produce over and above your wages is appropriated by your employer who divides it with the banker, landlord, politician and sundry capitalist hangers-on.

YOUR JOB under socialism will not be dependent on the caprices either of a private employer or the capitalist market. When things are produced to satisfy human needs, instead of primarily for sale and profit, involuntary idleness will be an impossibility. The "demand," instead of being limited to what people can buy, will be limited only to what people can use. Nor will technological unemployment be possible under socialism. Improved technology, especially automation, has greatly increased the productivity of workers. And while, under capitalism, the workers are denied the fruits of technology, under socialism it will insure material well-being for all beyond the dreams of avarice. Taking all the factors into consideration, the elimination of waste, of capitalist parasitism, and the removal of all restrictions to improved techniques, it is safe to say that, under socialism.

YOUR HOURS of work under socialism will be the minimum necessary to fulfil society's needs. Work is not the end and aim of man's existence; it is the means to an end. We do not live to work; we work to live. Socialism will, therefore, strive in every way to lighten the labour of man and give him the leisure to develop his faculties and live a happy, healthful, useful life. It is estimated that, with the facilities we now have, by the elimination of capitalist waste and duplication, and by opening jobs at useful work to all who are now deprived of them, we could produce an abundance for all by working four hours a day, four days a week, and forty weeks a year. These are a few of the direct and elementary benefits that you will derive from Socialism. To them may be added a multitude of benefits. Patchwork palliative measures generally are schemes to keep you mentally imprisoned in the vicious circle of capitalist thought. Break this thralldom of the mind! Instead of illusory "welfare and social security" under capitalism, proclaim as your goal the goal of the working class: Socialism

YOU ARE NEEDED to help bring to fulfilment the promise of abundance and human happiness that this age offers. You are needed to help avert capitalist tragedy -- of mass wars and an even more catastrophic climate change.