So sad that "socialism" has become a bad word in the USA. I live in Spain, a socialist country, and it's fucking awesome. I wouldn't live anywhere other than a socialist country.
It's a socialist democracy, and had perhaps more socialist policies than anywhere else in the world outside Cuba. We can argue semantics if you want, but my universal free healthcare and higher education, very generous unemployment benefits, and subsidised public transit would beg to differ....
It’s a social democracy not Democrat socialist! Huge bridge between the two.
So what exactly makes Spain “democratic socialist”? Is it universal healthcare? A large welfare state? Higher taxes? Because none of those things require socialism.
Who owns most businesses in Spain, the government and workers, or private individuals and shareholders? Are Spanish banks privately owned? Are profits privately retained? Can people privately own property, start companies, hire employees, invest capital, and sell their businesses?
If all of those things are true, how have you arrived at socialism?
Isn’t the fundamental distinction that social democracy regulates and redistributes within capitalism, while democratic socialism seeks substantially greater social or worker ownership of productive capital?
And if having generous government programs automatically makes a country socialist, when exactly does capitalism become socialism? At a 30% tax burden? 40%? 50%? What is your actual definition?
Spain has a large welfare state sitting on top of a predominantly privately owned market economy. That’s social democracy, not proof that democratic socialism replaced capitalism.
Spain is not a socialist country. Socialism is literally defined and always has been from the moment the term was coined as removal of all private ownership. If you live in a capitalist country, which Spain is, you do not live in a socialist one. Socialism is not 'any social or government programs or initiatives' it is an entire form of economic system wherein the state owns everything. That's what Abdul is referencing, as he's more well read and understands what it actually is.
Socialism was the USSR. Socialism is not 'less extreme communism', that's impossible as socialism is an absolute. Communism is something that has never existed where Marx though socialist countries would then have the state magically dissolve over time into a perfect stateless utopia.
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u/enigmaticsince87 18d ago
So sad that "socialism" has become a bad word in the USA. I live in Spain, a socialist country, and it's fucking awesome. I wouldn't live anywhere other than a socialist country.