"Socialism is the politics of envy, whereby the people who produce the wealth are despised by those who don't have the talent to do the same, as a result of their productivity they are often penalised by high taxation."

Aw heck Giok, whilst I respect your right to hold a (equally valid) personal opinion, I can't let that one slide. This comment betrays a degree of snobbery - the idea the vast majority of people are talentless drones who should allow themselves to be exploited by the bright shining lights of capitalism - deserving victims of their own lack of equality. It implies the only worthwhile work a citizen can do is that which contributes to the free market - so excluding health workers, carers etc.

Socialism represents the politics of justice - a system whereby a society can look after it's weakest members and make sure everyone, irrespective of personal wealth or accident of birth will enjoy basic standards of living and state-administered healthcare without the intervention of free-market economics. It is a fair system that encourages social responsibilty and ensures cohesion within individual communities, whilst retaining the idea of a tolerent, integrated society on a wider level.

The free market simply doesn't supply this. I'm a sole trader (and socialist!), I work bloody hard to contribute to my local economy, pay my taxes without trying to dodge them - this means I probably pay more tax that (for example) Phillip Green, uber-capitialist who lives in this country (as well as Monaco), makes plenty of money from it's citizens yet personally pays possibly less tax than me because his team of expensive accountants use loopholes to ensure he pays as little as possible, and thus he avoids his social responsibility to pay taxes for the benefit of our society.

Consumerism, the social face of capitialism, represents the true politics of envy - creating a marlet where we all aspire to become the thin, rich, perfect mannequins that are lauded as role models by a media that needs to secure advertising to function. Consumerism instills a degree of status anxienty into the populace based on the premise that to success is only measure in material wealth or personal beauty. It attempts to sell us things we don't need by making us insecure about our place in the social order - you're only a success if you have an expensive car, Sky + and a mortgage. You must be thin, of immaculate, ageless appearance or else hey - you're not worth it!

Whilst we need a degree of capitalism to function economically (as much as I'd like the communitst utopia to exist I agree with Giok's assertion that greed is always a factor), letting the free market dictate how the public sector functions is a recipe for disaster. When Thatcher instigated the selling of of the UK's social housing stock she germinated the crisis facing young people and many public (and increasingly private) sector workers today - a lack of affordable housing driving honest working people into potentially disasterous mortgage agreements simply for profit. At best this was a naive and short-sighted policy, at worst it was deliberate exploitation of a shared resource. Either way, it illustrates the failure of capitalism when dealing with public welfare issues.

I suppose it comes down to accountability. Capitalism takes way any degree of social responsibility because it only seeks to benefit those with a vested interest in profit - the shareholders or the board. Unelected, faceless and unknowable individuals pursing their own agendas. Socialism relies on accoutability - with elected representatives of the people administering the system and ensuring the civil service remains in the service of society, working for it's common good - true democaracy working from local to national level for the benefit of all.

And that has to be an ideology worth striving for - because we are ALL worth it.