What's the only profession that cannot exist in a socialist economy?
The answer is of course the entrepreneur!
The Soviet Union had engineers, scientists, accountants, and musicians. But they didn't have entrepreneurs.
Entrepreneurship is the defining economic characteristic of a free society. But what's the defining characteristic of an entrepreneur? The ability to sell an idea!
The fundamental difference between capitalism and socialism is that socialism relies on force, while capitalism relies on voluntary persuasion. In a free society you cannot force someone to buy your product no matter how good YOU think it is--it's all about serving other people. In this way marketing is essential not only for the success of individual businesses, but for the very continued existence of free societies.
Marketing is such a noble and heroic profession that it was illegal in Communist societies. When men cease to use persuasion to get their way, they will use guns....this is a brief one sentence summary of world history.
The truth is that persuasion is a beautiful art form because it compels us to treat each other with dignity and respect.
Great
I would like to disagree. I think, that in a true socialist system all working people are entrepreneurs, because they are all owners of productive property. And I think, that the in the Soviet Union there was not genuine socialism, because I don't think, that the Soviet Union was really democratic.