> Socialism is not a dictatorship, those are fundamentally different axes. A democratic society can vote to elect a socialist party and mandate them to create multiple competing companies in a given small market segment, for example.
Has anything like this ever happened in practice?
> But the fundamental incentives of a company under this ideal socialism are much better.
Socialism in a theoretical, ideal world would be great. We don't live in one currently, which is probably one reason why every single attempt at socialism/communism has failed.
> Like a very crude example, other than the reason to avoid very strict regulations, why wouldn’t a food company put cocaine into their product? They have the incentive to make their buyers addicted - while a government run company can be given different goals to optimize for - e.g. the health of a population measured in some way.
For one, people wouldn't choose the food with an addictive substance once it was known what the company was doing, plus most companies (and the individuals that run them) actually have morals and values that don't involve poisoning their customers.
Has anything like this ever happened in practice?
> But the fundamental incentives of a company under this ideal socialism are much better.
Socialism in a theoretical, ideal world would be great. We don't live in one currently, which is probably one reason why every single attempt at socialism/communism has failed.
> Like a very crude example, other than the reason to avoid very strict regulations, why wouldn’t a food company put cocaine into their product? They have the incentive to make their buyers addicted - while a government run company can be given different goals to optimize for - e.g. the health of a population measured in some way.
For one, people wouldn't choose the food with an addictive substance once it was known what the company was doing, plus most companies (and the individuals that run them) actually have morals and values that don't involve poisoning their customers.