Abstract
Many socialists are people of goodwill who cannot resign themselves to the misery and imperfections of this world. They are appalled by the poverty of the unfortunate and by the “squandermania” of many who are rich. They are alarmed by humiliating working conditions, and they are sad about the greed and the lack of cooperative spirit among many of their peers. Socialists want to eliminate these evils. But the same is true of most classical liberals, be they humanists or Christians. These aims of socialism are perfectly consistent, with classical liberalism, so the conflict between socialists and classical liberals is over the means of achieving their common goals.
“Das Gegenteil von ‘gut’ ist ‘gut gemeint.’” - Bert Brecht
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© 1987 Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, Dordrecht
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Vaubel, R. (1987). Socialism: Do The Ends Justify the Means?. In: Pejovich, S. (eds) Socialism: Institutional, Philosophical and Economic Issues. International Studies in Economics and Econometrics, vol 14. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-3571-6_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-3571-6_5
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