Excerpt from The Essentials of Socialism The ordinary volume on socialism is either biased in its presentation of the subject or it covers too small a portion of the field by being an historical sketch, a bit of propaganda literature, or merely a discussion of its theoretical foundation. In the following pages I have endeavored to avoid these objectionable features, in the hope that the volume may serve as a handbook to the busy reader or as a textbook for the classroom. My object has been to cover the field usually discussed and to present the subject in such a manner that the reader or instructor may be free to form and express his own opinions and to elaborate or to curtail any part of the discussion that he may desire. An effort has been made to state fairly and accurately both sides of the issues involved, and although I realize the practical impossibility of attaining this ideal, I cherish the hope that the following statement may prove satisfactory to the advocates as well as to the opponents of this widely discussed and much misunderstood subject. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

In this text, Roemer proposes a new future of socialism based on a redefinition of market socialism. The Achille's heel of socialism has always been maintaining innovation and efficiency in an economy in which income is equally distributed. Roemer points out that large capitalist firms have already solved a similar problem: in those firms, profits are distributed to numerous shareholders, yet they continue to innovate and compete. The author argues for a modified version of socialism, not necessarily based on public ownership, but founded on equality of opportunity and political influence.

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