Letter to the Editor: True Meaning of Socialism
February 25, 2019
It is about time that the American people were educated and informed about what true “Socialism” is and is not.
The fact is that in true socialism, “the means of production” are owned and controlled by all of the people. In other words, in true socialism all of the workplaces and businesses are owned, controlled, and run by all of the people for the good and well-being of all of the people. They are not privately-owned by individuals and groups. In true socialism, we would not be totally equal in terms of how much we would get paid for our work, but it would be much, much more equal than we are now. There would not be any billionaires or people who have hundreds of millions of dollars and tens of millions of dollars in total wealth, most of which they inherited and did not earn by their own labor. We would share what we have.
Those individuals such as Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who call themselves “Democratic Socialists” are actually ultra-liberal/progressive Democrats who believe that our federal government should do more and spend more on the safety net and other social programs that help the poor, the near-poor (those living on between 100%-125% of the official poverty line), the lower-middle-class, the middle-class, and even the upper-middle-class because they also have financial struggles and problems especially when it comes to medical and health care expenses in their families. They don’t advocate replacing our capitalist economic system with a truly socialist economic system.
They support our capitalist economic system, but they want a capitalist economic system that has more federal government spending to help all of the people just as our traditional allies do more of than we do here in the USA.
So, Republicans and Democrats, please stop spreading the false belief that having a program like “Social Security” somehow makes us a “Socialist” country. Because it does not.
Dr.Robert M Moon • Feb 27, 2020 at 6:09 AM
It’s unfortunate that in 2020 after witnessing seventy years of Socialism and seeing how regardless of how it begins or how good the intentions were Socialism always ends up as Communism. When the government fails and people are having to eat zoo animals to survive, they naturally protest against the government causing the economic crash. It’s always at this point a peaceful, revolution turns ugly. The former friendly socialists start acting more totalitarian as a response to the threat from the citizens. When pushed far enough where they fear they are losing power, they will strike back against the uprising. This is the only possible ending from a socialist government. When I read your explanation and you tell us Democratic Socialism is different than regular old socialism, I cringe. No, only the name is different, Bernie and AOC are talking about plain ol Socialism. They want to take over the healthcare sector giving government one-third of our economy. Next, they want to take over the energy industry. Which is our nation’s largest employer? The GOVERNMENT TAKES another one-third of our economy, giving them 2/3 ownership. There’s no difference when you control the means of production by stealing the company or by regulating (micro-managing) the industry into bankruptcy. Socialist governments will always gravitate toward Communism, they have no choice. People will eventually refuse to cooperate and that usually elicits a violent and deadly government response resulting in the deaths of millions of people. When you take your so-called Democratic Socialism and try forcing the ridiculous Green New Deal on the American people, their resistance will result in yours or their persecution.
Michael Foley • Oct 24, 2019 at 1:38 PM
While Prof. Epstein is not wrong, I fear he’s missing the point. We could have ultimately meaningless discussions of semantics and our political lexicon for eternity and never accomplish anything. Political speech predominately makes use of colloquial language, not dictionary definitions. His point is entirely valid for academic papers, but for the rest of us, his definition of “true socialism” has been replaced by ‘communism’ and ‘socialism’ has been reappropriated to include almost the full spectrum of direct government sector activity in the economy. By the understanding almost every American has of socialism, Sanders is a socialist.
Rachel Madigan • Feb 26, 2019 at 12:01 PM
Thank god somebody is concerned about this. The difference between a democratic-socialist and a socialist sounds small, but is really big! It’s a shame that progressive ideas that actually address our country’s huge inequality problem are being written off without even looking into them. All because they believe its synonymous with Stalinism in any capacity.