My views have advanced since I wrote this post over a year ago (though I am still more or less a socialist as I define it here and elsewhere). All being said, my form of socialism is not Marxist but more a form of liberalism.

However, it also makes a lot of sense that religion gives us just enough crazy hope to believe that men can work together and make life better and sacrifice for the good of the whole. While I don’t view socialism as viable due to the many sociological difficulties attached to it, it seems silly to try and limit a man’s (or Woman’s) belief in human cooperation to rise higher in the world. We need this sort of forward-thinking, hope/faith-centered world-view to inspire us as we labor around other imperfect beings.

Being a Mormon egalitarian (whether a communinist, socialist, or liberal) is very lonely. Many Mormons are more capitalist than they are LDS.

I tend to reject radical utopian communism in favor of a liberal form of social democracy. Of course, to most uninformed observers that makes me a radical socialist.

Man I’m so glad there are other socialisty Mormons out there, when I first found out about Hugh B. Brown and his cool quote about Mormons being able to be socialist etc, it made my day.
¡Me encanta el socialismo, y espero q no tenga q dejarlo!! ¡Ayudadme a hallar la verdad!!

Long-run goals of communism include the abolition of classes and organized society without governments or borders. Communists believe that as in certain tribal societies in the past and living still today, it is possible for humans to organize themselves without war, crime, starvation and homelessness. When there are social problems, communists blame those problems on how society is organized. They seek to organize society to bring out the best in people, however flawed the species may be.
Except in tribal societies, no communist leader* has ever claimed that a society has achieved communism yet. That means the industrial societies of our time have either lived in capitalism or socialism.

It all just makes me want to study and learn to find out what it takes to set up a society superior to capitalism (which I’ve come to loathe.)

“An important test I use in passing judgment upon an act of government is this: If it were up to me as an individual to punish my neighbor for violating a given law, would it offend my conscience to do so? Since my conscience will never permit me to physically punish my fellow man unless he has done something evil, or unless he has failed to do something which I have a moral right to require of him to do, I will never knowingly authorize my agent, the government to do this on my behalf. I realize that when I give my consent to the adoption of a law, I specifically instruct the police – the government – to take either the life, liberty, or property of anyone who disobeys that law. Furthermore, I tell them that if anyone resists the enforcement of the law, they are to use any means necessary – yes, even putting the lawbreaker to death or putting him in jail – to overcome such resistance…

“I believe we Americans should use extreme care before lending our support to any proposed government program. We should fully recognize that government is no plaything… It is an instrument of force and unless our conscience is clear that we would not hesitate to put a man to death, put him in jail or forcibly deprive him of his property for failing to obey a given law, we should oppose it.” – Ezra Taft Benson

It just so happens that this quote is from one of the prophets, but he didn’t say it in that capacity and I don’t intend it as an authoritative statement. But it does voice my position more eloquently than I could.

Almost none of the actions of American government today meet the criterion of justice given above, and the more we drift (or are pushed) toward socialism, the smaller that set of actions becomes.

Does taxing people in some way reduce or compromise their ability to “right and control of property”?

Does removing people’s property by force in some way reduce or compromise their ability to “right and control of property”? Well yes, self-evidently so.

Now, I’ve heard it argued many times that taxation and the violence necessary to accomplish it are means to a good end, but it astonishes me to see someone seriously claim that there is no threat of violence inherent in taxation, or that it doesn’t compromise property rights. I am literally, honestly astonished.