"Forcibly taking" may be your perspective, Kent; but many socialist systems operate by community consent. Socialism is an economic system based on shared resources. How the political control is exercised, is a different matter.

And it's clear to me that the early Christian church was a close approximation of the socialist ideal, with an expectation of respect and fairness for every member of the community - NOT a rigid system imposed by a strong authority, but a society that takes the needs and abilities of everyone into consideration.

In recent history, the Israeli kibbutz is a close approximation of the socialist ideal. I can't buy the contention above that socialism is necessarily godless, by the way. It's an economic system, fer chrissake...


-Joe-