Unloading the Term “Socialism”

Photo by Clay Banks on Unsplash

“From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs.”
— Karl Marx

I’m heartened that things have progressed to the point where an honest discussion about socialism can be had. Too often, the conflation of socialism with Communism and dictatorship would immediately shut down that conversation. It’s easy to decry the situations in Venezuela or Cuba, and just as easy to ignore where it works, even on a small scale. It’s healthy for us to tackle some of these taboos head on.

First and foremost, I don’t view socialism as the government takeover of all industries or the total abandonment of all capitalistic enterprise. The profit motive is real, and shouldn’t be discounted or necessarily discouraged, but it runs amok. Look at health care. Look at prisons. If the profit motive leads to companies selling people opiates, then selling them overdose drugs, then selling them addiction recovery treatments, it should be discarded. If it leads to judges getting kickbacks for sentencing more people to private prisons, instead of fitting punishments, it should be discarded. Sometimes one only receives the justice they can afford.

That’s where the government should step in. It should fill the cracks in the free market system when the profit motive fails. Is there a real reason why the government can’t house all…