People need to have reasons to do what they do. The essence of free markets and democratic methods is that the most reliable, least rotten reason is self interest. Johnson observed several centuries ago that people are rarely less harmlessly applied than in the getting of honest money.
Socialists, for their part, think we should all be idealists, that we should look not to our own good, but the common good. And who defines “the common good”? People who stand to benefit from changes in how it is pursued.
And for ideals to mean anything, they must be embraced by all. If you force people into behaviors not of their own choosing, you not only do not improve”society”, but on the contrary make it more brutal and unpleasant.