Advantages and Disadvantages of Socialism

Vinish Parikh December 19, 2011

Socialism as the name suggests is something which is for the benefit of all the people rather than small group of individuals. Under socialism economic system it is the government which possess majority of the factors of production and rest lies with private sector or capitalist as we call it, given below are some of the advantages and disadvantages of socialism –

Advantages of Socialism

  1. Under socialism since it is the government which owns majority of factors of production the chances of consumer being charged more is reduced as government will add minimum margin of profit on the produce unlike private companies.
  2. Chances of monopoly by few producers or people is next to nil under this system as government holds majority of resources, people are not in position to take control of resources and created monopoly like situation.
  3. The gap between poor and rich is there but it is not that gigantic as in the case of capitalist economic system.

Disadvantages of Socialism

  1. Imagine if in the race if there is no competition than you would not run with full speed but rather slowly in the same way under socialism economic system there is lack of competition which hampers the growth of the country.
  2. There is no incentive for people to develop entrepreneurship skill as they know it’s of no use, and we all know that entrepreneurs are essential if country wants to grow and compete with other countries of the world.
  3. It also suffers from delay in decision making on the part of government and bureaucratic attitude of government employees.