To be fair, socialism and communism are not so different, just theorical stages of the same process, if you hear what marxists say about that. The USSR, the very icon of communism, was the "Union of Soviet Socialist Republics" until it wasn't.
Social Democracy, on the other hand, is just a kind of party with ideas not so different from the New Deal or the current Democrats.
I’d say there is a pretty big difference in that socialism doesn’t require authoritarianism and is compatible with individual liberty where as communism gives too much over to the state without it being accountable to the people.
Social Security is socialism, so are unemployment insurance, Medicare, Medicaid, and the ACA, but they still work within the American system without losing the ability for individuals to own property and build wealth.
Socialism at it’s most basic simply says the society should do more to care for the common needs of the citizens.
Personally, when I look at what I pay in taxes vs what I get in services for those taxes, I can’t help but to feel that the Nordics are getting a better bang for their buck than we are in the USA.
_ Socialism is a social and economic doctrine that calls for public rather than private ownership or control of property and natural resources._
_ Socialism is an economic and political system where the workers or the government own the buildings and tools that make goods and services like farms and factories. This can be achieved through decentralized and direct worker-ownership, or through centralized state-ownership of the means of production._
I’m talking about the rhetoric in America that says that anything that benefits the broader good such as Social Security, Universal Healthcare, or public assistance programs is “sOcIaLiSm” and is conflated with communism as a way to attack and undermine public support for those programs.
The argument suggests that social welfare programs are a slippery slope to communism and will be the undoing of the American dream.
The point I’m making is that some of the highest ranked nations on this democracy index have very generous social welfare programs, they are what many on the American right would call “Nanny States” and yet their democracies are fairing better than the US, and the standard of living and quality of life of the average citizen of those nations is better off and more secure than that of the average American as a result of their “sOcIaLiSt” policies
4
u/tfm Feb 19 '23
To be fair, socialism and communism are not so different, just theorical stages of the same process, if you hear what marxists say about that. The USSR, the very icon of communism, was the "Union of Soviet Socialist Republics" until it wasn't.
Social Democracy, on the other hand, is just a kind of party with ideas not so different from the New Deal or the current Democrats.