I keep seeing Bernie supporters say he's a "democratic socialist" and distinguishing that from socialist. Can anyone explain the distinction to me like I'm a 5 year old? Cause I don't get it.
Agreed that it looks like these youngins are going to be voting for socialism in the future... Can Texas just secede already?
Socialism ends private ownership over the means of production.
Haven't heard any candidate champion that idea. I doubt anyone would even endorse such an idea. The big distinction I guess would be that Democratic Socialism can be 100% in favor of private ownership of the means of production and 100% in favor of seeing the rewards of the system be
more evenly distributed. Not even "equally" distributed between the owners of the means of production and their labor force, but more evenly distributed.
In an NFL sense, it's the CBA. The CBA doesn't divide the league amongst the players as it would under Socialism, it just makes sure that the players have certain protections and can't be treated like cattle. Could the NFL owners make more money without the protections the CBA provides? Bet your fucking ass they could. Anyone care to say the owners are hurting from the CBA?
Look at the minimum wage. Nobody is saying that the minimum wage should give everyone a 6-figure income. But maybe - just maybe - the minimum wage should be enough to where it would preclude the need for someone to collect government assistance. How much sense does it make for someone to be be able to collect government assistance even though they are employed full time? Tax payers subsidizing corporate wages. For what? That may as well be some odd dystopia version of socialism where everyone has a shared responsibility in funding the means or production but they don't have the shared wealth generated by it.
If you really want to talk about socialist ideas, the current healthcare system is a pretty fucking hard setup to beat. Medicare and Medicaid cost over $1T per year. Personal income tax generates $1.5T ever year. An amount roughly equivalent to 2/3rds of everyone's personal income tax bill goes to paying for healthcare for OTHER PEOPLE. Think about that amount of money when put into those terms and then consider that everyone who is paying for healthcare for other people also have to pay for it for themselves.
