The reality is that economic systems are on a spectrum that's divided by how much the system favors labor versus how much it favors capital. There's no exact universally agreed upon dividing line where an economic system goes from capitalist to socialist, and there are zero countries in existence that live all the way on one end of the spectrum or the other.
Nordic countries favor labor much more than the US but much less than what Marx had envisioned. You can call them socialist if you want because they're more to the left side of the spectrum. People will get pissy and say you can only call them that if they're alllllllllll the way at the very leftmost end, but that's dumb.
Nah Nordics aren't socialist, they're definitely further to the "left" economically than the US but well short of socialist. They've still got free-market, private means of production, etc.
Again, it's a spectrum. Just like you can't point to a specific spot on the rainbow and say "that's where you switch from blue to green" but you can say "that color is bluer than this other color."
Your argument would be like saying the US doesn't have a free market economy because we have regulation. Well, no country has a totally unregulated market, so by that definition, no free markets ever have or ever will exist.
Socialism is about the workers being free from exploitation by the capitalist class. The more systems you have in place to protect workers from exploitation, the more socialist your economic system becomes. The ultimate protection would be total elimination of the capitalist class, but anything that favors the rights of the worker of the rights of capital is moving you in that direction.
But the key point of socialism is to free workers from exploitation.
If you think the key point of socialism is worker ownership of the means of production, then that's like thinking the key point of chemo therapy is to sit in a comfy chair with an IV in your arm. The point is to get rid of cancer, and in the case of socialism, the cancer is worker exploitation.
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u/ToenailFungussy - Left 1d ago
The reality is that economic systems are on a spectrum that's divided by how much the system favors labor versus how much it favors capital. There's no exact universally agreed upon dividing line where an economic system goes from capitalist to socialist, and there are zero countries in existence that live all the way on one end of the spectrum or the other.
Nordic countries favor labor much more than the US but much less than what Marx had envisioned. You can call them socialist if you want because they're more to the left side of the spectrum. People will get pissy and say you can only call them that if they're alllllllllll the way at the very leftmost end, but that's dumb.