neoboule

In the past few years we have been hearing more politicians proclaiming themselves to be socialists. Bernie Sanders comes to mind and more recently newly elected Mayor of New York City, Zohran Mandani has not shied away from his affiliation with the Democratic Socialists of America and he won the election by a pretty good margin.

Tagging the word “socialist” onto any candidate for elected office in the United States has long been almost a sure way to make them lose their election. Any candidate, typically a Democrat, would immediately deny being socialist and loudly proclaim their belief in capitalism, whether true or not, it was an obligatory statement.

The fact is that socialism is common in America, it is part of our culture and law and most of us benefit in some way from socialist policies. Though, I suspect, most Americans could not define socialism or recognize a socialist policy. So what is socialism and what policies that are common in America are socialist or have socialist leanings?

Loosely defined capitalism favors private ownership without government intervention, communism eliminates most, if not all, private ownership in favor of government ownership and socialism is everything between those two extremes, at least as it pertains to ownership. If you Google it you’ll get a definition similar to that.

Americans like to own things. Whether for comfort, convenience, security, prestige or any number of other reasons we like to own things. For that reason alone communism will never be very popular for Americans, though there are a host of other reasons. Socialism is not communism though much of the propaganda coming from some politicians and their talking heads would have you believe they are the same thing.

Anytime a government policy regulates a private business or implements a policy that favors one group over another or redistributes wealth it is by definition socialism. Let’s look at some of the socialist policies that are common and mostly popular in America. My favorite is the child tax credit. Yes, that tax credit that most adults either will, do or have enjoyed is socialism. The policy favors persons with children over those without. It is a redistribution of income.

The same is true for the head-of-household filing status for single or married person with minor children. The popular mortgage and student loan interest deductions are equally socialist. Anytime a tax policy favors one group over another it is socialist. The same is true about government regulation.

The simplest example of government regulation being socialist is regulation of utility companies. Most people enjoy some benefit of this type of socialism since utilities are a natural monopoly and without regulation would skyrocket in price. Cleaner air, safe drinking water, consumer protection from unfair or unsafe business practices are all due to socialist regulation. The list could go on indefinitely but that is enough to make my point.

Socialism is not evil or even bad so when you hear a politician or one of their talking heads accuse someone of being a socialist ask them if they want to get rid of tax credits for dependents or deregulate utility companies. I am curious how many would even know what socialism really means.

While it true that some policies lean farther left than others and are not going to be popular in this county, it is undeniable that America is to some extent a socialist country and that is ok. Socialism does not make us any less of democracy. We need to take the best ideas from history and practice and maybe take a little time to learn about these things.