Why do some Americans want the US to become socialist?

Quora answer to "Why do some Americans want the US to become socialist?"


First a correction to your primary assumption: *the U.S. already IS socialist*. The U.S. Military, our highway system, our national park system, the U.S. Postal Service, Medicare, etc. are all examples of socialized enterprises. A primary aspect of socialism is simply public ownership of services and production. The other aspect is public management of the economy, and the U.S. has that as well through its many regulatory agencies, the Federal Reserve, its federal monetary policies and so on. That is why the U.S. economy is described as a "Mixed economy (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mixed_economy)," because it contains elements of both socialism and market capitalism. So that's one important point: you might want to rephrase your question as "Why do some Americans want the U.S. to become more socialist?"

The second important point is that there are many, many different kinds of socialism. When I have conversations with conservatives who aren't very well educated on this topic, they will often lump communism and State socialism into the same category as libertarian socialism and democratic socialism. *But these are all distinctly different things*. It would be like saying that Switzerland has the same political economy as Cuba - and of course that's just silly. In the same vein, most folks would probably never say that "China is capitalist," right? But in reality they are the largest example on the planet of mixing "State capitalism" with "Marxism-Leninism" to create a form of market socialism. But a well-educated person would never say that China is an example of "democratic socialism" either, because this (along with many other forms of successful socialism) aims to be both democratic and egalitarian (see Socialism (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialism) for a good overview)...which China certainly is not.

So to answer the question as I've reframed it, the reason some Americans want the U.S. to become more socialist is because they observe other countries that are more socialist thriving with high standards of living and quality of life - just as other answers have pointed out. I have lived in a more socialist country in Europe and I really miss some of the benefits that country offered. **But there is also a distinctly "American" reason for wanting additional socialism in the U.S.**, and that is because America has always championed a government by the people, for the people. That was whole point of the American Revolution, right? But America has become a cronyist, clientist State capitalist plutocracy, with wealthy individuals, corporations and other special interests manipulating the democratic process, the legislative process, and the judicial system. The American people no longer have a substantive say in their own government or the rule of law. So one thing socialist systems like those in Switzerland can offer is more public control over the economy, more public control over goods and services, and even more public control over the legislative process. There can still be the advantages of a competitive marketplace, just without the corporate behemoths pulling all the strings and monopolizing whole industries. This is really a fantastic way to return democratic power to the people - through direct democracy and subjection of nearly all enterprises to public decision-making.

Right now the American people - and especially the poor and working class - must suffer the tyranny of those with the most wealth. But under distributed forms of socialism with more direct democracy (libertarian socialism, democratic socialism, community-centric socialism, a self-managed economy, etc.), all Americans will be able to participate. And isn't that what American democracy is supposed to be all about...?

My 2 cents.

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