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Can a career in I/O psychology help shift America's economy into socialism?

I was originally disinterested in I/O because the corporate world seems like a nightmare to me. When I realized research often shows noncapitalist work systems are better for workers' health, I began to wonder if its possible if I/O psych research and jobs can change America into a socialist country.

psychology social-impact industrial-organizational-psychology industrial-organizational
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Noah’s Answer

That's a very complicated and interesting question, I must admit. My immediate answer is going to be no but that doesn't mean I/O psych can't bring about a lot of the benefits socialism might be associated with while operating in a capitalist system. A big reason why I/O psych is even a thing is to fill in the holes where capitalism (and more specifically poor management structures) have severely failed. Worker mental health, efficiency, collaboration, motivation, solving burnout, etc. are all things that are becoming increasingly important to a lot of companies these days and imo that's a good thing. One example of this has been the many instances of companies giving out subscriptions to apps like Calm in an effort to help their employees destress and ultimately help the company grow.

I'm also curious to hear what you mean by "noncapitalist work systems" and "a socialist country." It's hard to understand and answer your question unless I know what you mean by these terms. But from what I understand now, I'd say no. America is likely not going to turn into a socialist country but industries like I/O psychology can be mechanisms by which we can fill in the gaps of capitalism, humanize the corporate environment and increase equality of opportunity which will undoubtably work better for everyone in the long term.
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Katherine’s Answer

I definitely agree that capitalism has its downsides, but I wouldn't agree that what we want is socialism instead. I would say what we want is a country/system/world where rather than everyone get pulled down to all be poor together (which is all socialism ever truly achieves), instead everyone is allowed to and helped to and truly does achieve all being rich together. The way to do that is to learn reality--how things really are, including humanity's true relationship to God--and create a true Zion (otherwise called "the pure in heart" or the "city of peace") where everyone is on the same page and chooses to be morally good enough to make sure that there are no poor among us anywhere. The thing is, no one can successfully control anyone else to ensure that happens--the best we can do is make sure we ourselves do our best to help ourselves be taken care of and always work to make sure other people, as many as we can, also have no lack; and encourage those around us to do the same.

If a particular branch of psychology would be helpful in creating that system, then go for it! If you feel something else might achieve that even better, you might decide to go for that instead. It's up to you!
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