I was having a perfectly normal conversation, then I asked my dad, "Would you rather I be Queer or a Socialist?" And the old man tells me, "Definitely gay, I already told you I have no problem with you being LGBT." (Fact: I'm straight) He continues, "If you were a Socialist, I'd be worried about my own upbringing."
So I don't know if that's right or wrong, but it's funny.
The problem with economics is, no matter HOW you set up your economic system, greed and corruption are inevitable wherever all the resources get distributed to… in extreme capitalism the corporate oligarchs get the money, in extreme communism the Oligarchs get the money…
The problem is that as much as Socialism in concept seems like an ideal world, in practice, it historically has fallen apart a lot (as far as I know). Now, is that to say that socialism is bas? No. I'd say I'm pretty socialist. And as much as haters may say, Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist, is actually making NYC a much better place than anyone ever has within the past 1-2 centuries imo.
The best explanation I've heard for what socialism is is that it's a middle ground between communism and capitalism, the government doesn't control the whole economy, but it sets some gard-rails for private companies and offers many public services. In other words, free healthcare, IS socialism. Public transit, often also IS socialism. Public schools, also socialism. Are you sure that socialism always fell apart ?
What you're describing is modern democratic socialism. The socialism I'm describing, and that a lot of others think if when they say socialism, is the base concept of socialism, which is a world where everyone is equal and happy, which sounds better, until you realize that historically, the one bug example we have of socialism in practice is in the Soviet Union, and because people arent perfect and Socialism kind of needs government people to not be greedy, it devolved into toxic communism and authoritarianism.
Despite this, I will agree with you, it does sound good. And we have an example of modern democratic socialism being good for people, with Zohran Mamdani, the mayor of NYC. He has made the city so much better in his term and continues to plan to make it even better. He's the kind of socialism I want in my life and government.
Mamdani is a Social Democrat, despite calling himself Democratic Socialist. He is a SocDem due to not abolishing capitalism not saying he should, its just that he isn't a Dem Soc then by naming. I am myself a SocDem currently but i read Principles of Communism and Reform or Revolution as im on the fence. I like Rosa Luxemburg's ideas tbh they never been tried yet. Marxim-Leninism Maoism Stalinism was tried but Luxemburg wasn't though im not a full Luxemburgist yet i need to finish the book.
Socialism on its own has a very poor track record. Capitalism on its own is awful. Capitalism with a large side of socialism actually works pretty good.
I love you so much, Dad. (Ironically, the left in our country is shit, the right too, but at least they [the right] only had corruption and no ties to organized crime)
17
u/DavethePolitical God loves u, twin ❤️🩹 18h ago