Communism is just an extreme form of socialism. They are both collectivist and anti-capitalistic with the government owning property and deciding your worth. When you look at a lot of pro-socialist protests, you’ll inevitably see Soviet banners so it’s easy to conflate the two. It’s so easy in fact that many that yearn for socialism are actually looking for communism. Both are a slope slipping in the same downward direction.
Capitalism has its shortcomings but it just happens to be the best available option. The biggest flaw with capitalism is that it doesn’t account for those that can’t produce for society. That’s where safety net programs come into play.
I believe that we can implement national models for safety net programs but they should be run by those with a vested interest in their success. Safety net programs and socialist programs in general run best at the local level. Within smaller communities, we can better address corruption, waste, and how best to use community dollars to produce better outcomes.
My issue is when we try to bring a social comfort to being impoverished. A fair society should have upward mobility and motivation to moving up is important. Feeling comfortably poor is a trap that the wealthy and powerful leverage to keep their control over you.
Right now, we have a lot of upward and downward mobility. Most of those at the top don’t stay there long and many at the bottom bump themselves into the middle. With that said, too many get stuck at the bottom and I believe that to come from the social desire to make people feel comfortably poor.
From this poverty, you get the desire for socialist programs that are inevitably used to control those in need.
While those that control the media get people to discuss the differences between socialism and communism, the real conversation should be between those that tell the truth and those that control the narrative.