I find myself correcting this misconception constantly. It is alarming how many people either don’t know or don’t understand what socialism actually means.
People routinely label any government subsidy, welfare program, or public service that benefits the population as “socialism.” That is not what the term means. In political and economic theory, socialism is fundamentally about social or public ownership of the means of production, not simply the existence of government programs.
I suspect the persistence of this misconception is a combination of confirmation bias, the Dunning–Kruger effect, and simple stubbornness.
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Nordic states reorganized themselves from feudal agrarian military economies into industrial social welfare economies over the course of the late 19th and 20th centuries. Their party politics and bureaucratic reorganization was explicitly informed by socialist theories and economic models devised during that time.
Strong unions, state owned industries, and Democratic governance gives working Scandenavians direct say over and profit from their local economies
communist@lemmy.frozeninferno.xyz 1 month ago
It being inspired by socialism doesn’t change the fact that the workers don’t own the means of production there and it is therefore not socialism. Them having more say because they have unions is not the same.
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Workers control the means of production through the democratic state
communist@lemmy.frozeninferno.xyz 1 month ago
they don’t though, they regulate it and apply some pressure, but these are still privately held, socialism is always in contrast to private ownership.