Socialism works.

[guillaumeb]

Consider the following examples:

The USPS, the most efficient and cheapest service in the world.

The Armed Forces.

The Veterans Administration.

Publicly owned water departments.

The air traffic control system.

Police departments.

The Social Security Adminstration.

The FDA.

And so many more examples that could be listed.

Socialism works to provide these services because the profit motive is not there to distort pricing and wages.

[kennetha]

1. You are confusing a mixed economy with socialism

“Socialism” doesn’t mean that some services are provided by the government. Socialism is about the means of production in toto being “socially owned.” The US Post Office may be “socially owned” but neither UPS nor Federal Express — which competes with USPO on certain services — are.

Nor does having a not for profit sector of the economy mean socialism. Most private universities are not for profit but they are not socially owned.

[guillaumeb]

2. I am talking about the Government providing certain services.

I am not talking about socialism as the Russians and Chinese practiced it, where the Government literally ran everything.

There are degrees of socialism, just as there are degrees of market economies.

[kennetha]

3. You're speaking your own private language in other words.

You can’t just use words any old way you want in complete ignorance of their historical, political, and theoretical meanings.

[guillaumeb]

4. My own private language?

Far more common are systems of social democracy, now often referred to as democratic socialism, in which extensive state regulation, with limited state ownership, has been employed by democratically elected governments (as in Sweden and Denmark) in the belief that it produces a fair distribution of income without impairing economic growth.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/socialism

I have written here frequently about my preference for a social democratic state. So perhaps I should have referred to it that way. But to clarify, I am talking about a social democratic system, where many services are provided by the government.

But even in the US system, which some like to call a free market system, there is no free market.

[IluvPitties]

7. Thanks, kennetha!

Words have meanings, and we should not be using them irresponsibly.

[ck4829]

5. K&R

[SammyWinstonJack]

6. Too bad the Deplorables don't understand any of this. They hear socialism and see red.

[Thyla]

8. Absolutely....

We know it isn't about health care but reds under the bed, fear of communists and all other things they don't understand.

Most nations with systems that can be described as democratic socialism, and there are plenty, consider it more responsible governance and the term socialism is rarely thrown around and when it is you get laughed at for being a paranoid dick with no grounding in reality.

Frankly the word itself needs to be dropped altogether in the debate and just leave it being uttered by the frothing nutters.

[bdamomma]

9. I found these articles

that may be of interest.

https://www.businessinsider.com/difference-between-socialist-and-democratic-socialist-2018-6

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2012/3/29/1078852/-75-Ways-Socialism-Has-Improved-America


https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/07/opinion/trump-socialism-state-of-the-union.html?imp_id=224273764&action=click&module=trending&pgtype=Article®ion=Footer