Could Socialism ever be a viable option option in the United States? [I Want To Make A Deeper Study Of Socialism]

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Throughout they past 173 years since its creation, socialism has, on paper been a possible political and economic theory of social organization. The core concept behind socialism is to advocate the means of production, distribution, and exchange to be owned or regulated by the community as a whole.

However in many places socialism seems to have done more harm than good and in some cases has lead to communism, a topic for another day.

A list of these places:

- Laos
- Cuba
- Vietnam
- China
- North Korea
- Algeria
- Bangladesh
- Eritrea
- Guinea-Bissau
- Guyana
- Etc

However some places get the misconception of being a socialist society such as:

- Sweden
- Norway
- Denmark
- Germany
- Canada

These nations are actually of the Capitalist Welfare state where they built their economies up after a post World War II world.

Do you think that socialism could ever be implemented in the United States?

Would a socialist government and economy in the United States cause harm or good for the society?

CountScrofula · 41-45, M

I'm going to go with a Bakunin quote.

[quote]"Freedom without socialism is privilege and injustice; socialism without freedom is slavery and brutality."[/quote]

The problem here is the examples you're listing of 'socialist' countries all run into an inevitable problem.

When you try to implement socialism in a global capitalist economy, all the capitalists want you dead as a hammer. So you invariably have to start crushing dissent in order to prevent your shiny new state from collapsing in week one.

So what may have been intended as a worker-run collective community turns into an authoritarian single-party state with a command economy.

The only ones that thrive are places like China, which just went full capitalist exploitation. Yeah there's a "socialist" government but all of our shit is made there by underpaid, horribly treated workers. No socialist ever dreamed of that shit.

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Anyways can America become socialist? Probably, maybe. But there's a better question. Is capitalism the end-point of history?

It is almost certainly not, so what should come next?