الاشتراكية عقيدة ترى أنّ الإنسان لا حقّ له في الوجود لأجل ذاته، وأنّ حياته وعمله ليسا ملكاً له، بل ملكٌ للمجتمع، وأنّ مسوّغ وجوده الوحيد هو خدمة المجتمع، وأنّ للمجتمع أن يتصرّف به كما شاء من أجل ما يراه خيره الجماعي القبلي.

“Socialism is the doctrine that man has no right to exist for his own sake, that his life and his work do not belong to him, but belong to society, that the only justification of his existence is his service to society, and that society may dispose of him in any way it pleases for the sake of whatever it deems to be its own tribal, collective good.”Ayn Rand — The Ayn Rand Lexicon: Objectivism from A to Z (1988)