What Is Democratic Socialism?

Yes, that does seem to be extremely rare now but it was the way nearly everyone lived when I was a child. Some people who owned large farms would refuse to buy even an occasional soft drink at a time when a Coke could be had for a nickel.

People HAD to be frugal...we have such a high standard of living now, and I for one, am extremely grateful. I have seen REAL poverty in India and the Philippines. We have very little of THAT in the USA.

Statism: The State is the people and the people are the State. The more power the State has, the more empowered are the people.

Collectivism: Everything is generated by society, thus resources should be allocated by society via its agent, the State. The profit motive is replaced by the political motive. Supply-and-demand is replaced by political connection when determining wages, prices and the distribution of goods/services.

Socialism: a form of Statist Collectivism in which government owns the means of production, including the people themselves.

Communism: a mythical goal of socialism in which society has evolved -- or been managed via social engineering, which includes torture, starvation, incarceration, periodic purges, execution -- toward the Nirvana of no government and people living according to From Each According to Ability, to Each According to Need. Communist Utopia is only one more five-year-plan away.

Democratic Socialism: a form of Statist Collectivism in which private property is tolerated so long as it serves the "public interest" as determined by the State. Economic success is not possible w/o political influence and vice-versa. Cronyism is inevitable. AKA: National Socialism, fascism.

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