[b]1. Socialists want to seize your property and belongings to be given to the state.[/b] When we purport the abolition of private property, what we are referring to is the socialization (common ownership) of the means of production (all the stuff such as machinery and capital used to generate wealth) so that the lower classes have a better means to generate wealth, and thus diminish inequality. Socialists have no desire to take your clothes, car and house. In reality, the banks have better claims to your personal belongings than we do. [b]2. Socialists are anti democratic and want to establish authoritarian rule.[/b] The two-party system (in the US particularly) is in fact a dictatorship of the rich. Under it, working people create all the wealth, but capitalists (who own the corporations and banks) have all the economic governance and utilise it to control and influence politics, to in turn, create more control, power and influence. That fact never changes, and the truth of the matter is that it never will under capitalism, even if we have the right to vote. In a socialist system, natural resources cannot be sucked dry by those with swaths of power and money. They are equally distributed in adherence to a plan conducted by union syndicates and their organisations, instead of being concentrated in the hands of the elite. This would create a grounding for true democracy, more so than capitalism could ever hope to provide. [b]3. Socialism provides no incentives to work.[/b] On the contrary. Socialism rewards hard work. Capitalism rewards corporatist ethically dubious behavior. Under socialism, the means of production are commonly owned, and thus the person working is compensated accordingly for the work they do. [b]4. Socialism died with the Soviet Union.[/b] Socialism was never implemented in the Soviet Union, nor was Communism. When Stalin ascended to power, he wanted complete unquestionable obedience to the state, as well as the state itself (a singular entity, not owned by the people) controlling the means of production, including economic and social policy. It completely defied the key tenets of what socialism sought out to do in the first place. [b]5. Everyone gets paid the same, regardless of their skill level.[/b] It's true socialism purports the elimination of the classes to a certain degree. This however, does not necessarily result in the abolition of the wage system. Rather, the main idea behind socialism is that someone will never be compensated more just for owning a company. Money can also be assigned to your occupation accordingly. However, the people who do the actual work are the ones being compensated, instead of the people who just so happen to own an organisation. So yeah, just thought I'd clarify and debunk a few myths floating around in the politics threads. I'm sure there are more misconceptions, so anyone who considers themselves a socialist or an admirer of socialism can add to the list if they so desire, and I will amend the OP.