What did Karl Marx mean by socialism?

Answer 1

Socialism means very different things depending on who you ask.

Socialism itself, in its very basics, is an economic theory in which people have a more even spread of money between all of a nation's citizens than what one generally has in a capitalism. It's supposed to be a transitional period between capitalism and communism in Karl Marx's theory of societal progression, where people are not necessarily equal yet in what they have, but they have equal opportunity and can get help from the wealthy when they are poor because they are down on their luck.

It's hard to delve too far into the topic without being one-sided. There are good things and bad things about every economic theory--capitalism, socialism, communism, even mercantilism--but descriptions of each tend to float towards making one sound much better than another.

In the United States of America, when people, usually people who identify with the conservative or Republican ideologies, talk about socialism, they often mean when the central government decides to use their tax income from the citizens to support welfare projects which help the poor get back on their feet. People who support this use of taxpayer money say that it is more fair; people who are against this use of taxpayer money say that often poor people are lazy or will become lazy if they know that they will be supported by the government when they do not work.

Answer 2

Nothing, he meant NOTHING!

Answer 3

true