badgenome on 09 April 2014
| ToxicJosh said: Honestly, I don't think many Americans actually understand what Socialism is. Socialism is the state-ownership of economic machinery; not a redistributive tax system or the presence of a welfare state. To be fair, redistributive tax systems and welfare states can be part of Socialist systems, but they are not its defining feature. |
Socialism isn't a binary state of affairs. There are degrees of socialism. When the state can regulate the economy as much as it wants and chooses to do so to a very large degree (as in the US), that allows for a great deal of socialism without the state having to claim outright ownership of the means of production. The American government has found this to be a very effective way of socializing things in the US over the past century without spooking the horses by openly appearing socialist. That's how we've end up with an absurd contrivance like Obamacare instead of an honest single-payer system.
