Ownership in socialism is easy only the state can own things and everybody owns the state. That in theory sounds great but for socialism to work one step’s through a phase we in political community call communism and then the communist leaders must give up all power and all ownership and allow the government to operate without leadership. Can anyone name a moment in time that has ever happened?
The collective mentality is a little harder to grasp but in its simplest form it means that the group in this case the larger population is more important than the individual in all cases, a utilitarian utopia of sorts, of course that means if the masses are better off without you than the group can kill you for the betterment of the group. I realize this sounds like the death penality and many socialist would argue they are against that but in reality the death penality is more humane, I say this because for you to get the punishment of death one has to commit a heinous act, be caught and found guilty at trial and then found guilty through at least two appeals, the socialist attitude is usually swift and decisive and the collective is always more important so in any case even civil cases or moral ones the collective is correct.
All government is run on the premise that everyone is the same and gets the same, this leaves individual achievement in the dust and always will. All programs include all people and your pay check is not your own, you are given what you need when you need it if the collective can provide if not you go without, sounds a lot like prison doesn’t it? Well that is because it is a lot like prison and historically this system lives up to this type of failure, people as a rule never live up to a higher standard but are dragged down to a lower one.
In the end Socialism sounds like a great idea but in the grand scheme of things it is just another pipe dream of a perfect world that is unattainable in that fashion. After all how can a moral and lawful world be had through no effort from those who participate? It cannot, which is why capitalism is the economic system that has brought more people out of poverty than any other and it always works best under a republic not a democracy because as cool as utilitarian ideas sound one still needs to remember there is always a higher moral ideal to reach.