** “Laura Macdonald, a Carleton University professor and former director of the school's Institute of Political Economy, offered the following:
"Socialism is a broad ideology that has different variants, but in general is associated with greater faith in the role of the state versus the market, and a skepticism about the capacity of the market, on its own, to deliver both growth and social equity."” **
It says, faith in the role of the state. The trouble with that is, that in many nations placing faith in the state means placing your faith in an institution far more cruel, ruthless and exploitive than the worst of capitalist corporations.. Socialism only works well in states which are well educated and highly democratic, where people have real control over the state in which they invest their hopes and wealth.
The more education and democracy you have the more socialism you can enjoy, and the democracy has to be maintained, especially since there is another form of economics like socialism, in which both the political and economic establishments are one and the same, and it is called feudalism, into which socialism automatic degenerates in counties which have weak democracies.
What is currently happening in the U.S. is runaway plutocracy. Political power needs to be divorced from wealth.
As the republicans continue to be allowed to erode the ability of the electorate to become educated, they will win. An uneducated, sickly voter base is easily manipulated
@Science-guy Yes poor education is just as bad in a capitalist state as a socialist one. All dictatorships use the peoples ignorance as a sad excuse for suppressing democracy, but of course educational failings are the fault of the political establishment anyway, so the blame only goes back to the same door.
@Wangobango3 Sadly time on this site is making me feel that, the US is nothing like the advanced country I once thought it was.
Trump has about as much an idea of what constitutes socialism as he does for what constitutes morality. He will use his ignorance as a way to spread fear, the red scare will become very real for his constituency in much the same way he spreads fear of immigrants.