What Is Democratic Socialism?

The new rising star of the Democratic Party is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The 28-year-old former bartender doesn't know much about politics -- this week, she bungled her way through an interview answer by referring to Israeli "occupation" of Palestine and citing her lack of expertise on the issue despite her international relations degree. But she's young; she's energetic; and she speaks in glowing terms about rights to housing, food, college and health care. She's a charter member of the Democratic Socialists of America, a group, we're informed by The New York Times' Michelle Goldberg, that is on the rise. "Its growth has exploded since the 2016 election," Goldberg reports, "from 7,000 members to more than 37,000."

What exactly is democratic socialism, and what distinguishes it from socialism plain and simple? Ocasio-Cortez doesn't know. When asked about it by Meghan McCain on "The View," she stated that there is a "huge difference" between the two notions but then concluded, "I believe that in a moral and wealthy America, in a moral and modern America, no person should be too poor to live in this country." Which doesn't explain the difference at all.

The difference is truly between socialism and social democracy. Socialism suggests state ownership and control of all major resources -- and generally ends with the complete collapse and destruction of the productive population. Social democracy suggests redistribution of capitalistic gains -- more like Denmark or Norway or Sweden. It's unclear where Ocasio-Cortez lies on this spectrum considering that the DSA openly acknowledges its desire to abolish capitalism.

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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