Democratic Socialism vs Communism vs Capitalism

Make no mistake about it, I’m a capitalist. I’ve always believed that one of the things that has made America a great country is the fact that everyone has a chance to be as successful as they choose to be, thanks to capitalism. And through hard work, talent, skill, and sometimes luck you can take advantage of the opportunity. I’ve certainly been able to do so in my career. Over the course of forty years, this high school graduate (with some community college credits) has managed to build a life, raise some kids, and have enough money to do exactly what I want to for the next twenty-five years, or so, in retirement. At this moment, our president along with his cronies – vice president, cabinet members, right leaning pundits – is running around telling any microphone and camera that the country is being taken over by “violent, communist, scum.” This is how he refers to the “Dumbocrats” and anyone that leans even slightly left.

(Let’s stop for a moment and consider this. I have never known an elected president to refer to over half the population with such horrible rhetoric. Have you? Why does he think he can get away with that? Why do all his followers think that it’s okay to do so? He claims to work for all of us and yet, he calls many of us these horrible names. I mean, what the actual fuck? I’ve had plenty of former Presidents that I didn’t agree with their policies. I never, for a second, felt like they were trying to stomp on half of the citizenry of our country!) I recently heard a wonderful conversation on the radio show, On Point, hosted by Meghna Chakrabarti where a professor from Columbia University was describing the difference between Democratic Socialism and Communism. If you have the time, it’s worth a google and a listen. I can only wish our elected officials took the time to do the same. Maybe they’d stop saying this stupid stuff and maybe our journalists could start asking questions of them that clarify what they really stand for. I digress. Here are my own definitions. Capitalism – anyone may become rich but everyone is on their own. Communism – no one may become rich but no one will be poor. Socialism – anyone may become rich but no one will be poor and we’re all in this together. Democratic socialism – See above plus the government, through the people, will make sure it all runs properly. Why is this important? Well, if you go with the notion that America is the greatest country in the world, it follows that all of our society should have enough food to eat, a place to live, affordable healthcare, the ability to earn a living, and free education. That sounds, to me, like the least one could expect from the greatest country in the world. And yet, we don’t. How bad is it? Let’s start with food. According to the USDA, 5.4% of the population have severe food insecurity meaning they routinely skip meals altogether. And 8.3% of the population face reduced food availability, skipping means or eating unhealthy food. In other words, 47.9 million people either go hungry or eat unhealthy foods. Next up, a place to live. According to HUD, at any moment, about 750,000 people are homeless in the US. These people are living in their cars, or in a cardboard box, or in a tent, or just sleeping on a park bench. In many cities, there is some form of support for them to sleep in a protected spot but many are simply out of doors. There are some that do it by choice but it is a small minority – most have no choice. Education – Only 38.7% of the population has a bachelor’s degree or higher. More importantly, 10.13% do not have a high school diploma at 25 years of age. 40% of the population never attend college of any kind. Despite this, the current debt load for higher education is $1.8 Trillion. (By the way, education has been proven to be the key to more quickly increasing GDP and a much higher happiness index among populations. Oh yeah, that’s in countries where education is largely free.)

Affordable health care – about 8.1% of the population have no healthcare insurance, around 27 million people as of 2024. Don’t forget, the “One Big Beautiful Bill” removed subsidies for Obamacare and the expectation is that another 10 million or so have probably fallen off health insurance rolls as a result. It’s believed that 80% of the people with no healthcare are among the mostly poor. Based on the cost of healthcare and insurance, that’s probably correct. Finally, let’s talk about poverty. As of 2024, 35.7 million people live below the poverty line. What is the poverty line? For a single person, it’s $14,960; that is just about minimum wage of $7.25 per hour at a full-time job. For a family of four, the poverty line is $29,890. Think about how much you make in your career and how you may struggle sometimes to make ends meet. How much more than this “poverty line” do you earn? And almost 36 million people earn that tiny amount, or less! Scarier to me is that the average household has around $450 available for an emergency and if faced with one, would be struggling to handle it.

Wait! I thought we were the greatest country in the world. It doesn’t sound like it! I know, right? My opinion is that it’s due to having what I would call unrestricted capitalism along with a “trickledown theory” of taxation. Some examples: For profit companies are allowed to make as much money as they can; they’re beholden to their shareholders to produce a return on investment. Fair enough. And they should also pay taxes on the profit the company produces, right? According to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) at least 88 profitable US companies paid $0 in taxes in 2025. They earned over $105 billion in that same tax year. And paid $0 in taxes! You can google the list and see how many you currently do business with. Additionally, many of these companies pay their employees so poorly that many of them rely on government assistance. It’s estimated that over 40% of Walmart employees, are on Medicaid and/or SNAP benefits – both of which are driven by income. Or lack of it. Okay but I don’t want to be a Communist. Nobody that I know, does. But the Democratic Socialists are getting lumped with them by Trump and his clown posse. The fact is that we’ve had socialist programs for decades. Social Security? It’s in the name. Medicare and Medicaid? Both are social programs. Have you ever driven on the freeway or interstate highway? They’re both socialism in action since the Federal Government built them – with your tax dollars. Ever been to a National Park? That’s a social program funded by the US Government. (It’s responsible for putting $60 billion into cities and towns that are within an hour of these parks, thanks for tourists and visitors.) Then what are the Democratic Socialists proposing? First is that everyone should pay their fair share of taxes. Back in the 1950s and 1960s, the highest tax rate was over 90%. (Bear in mind, that was on the amount of money earned over a certain amount, not all.) The current rate is 37% and that’s for income over $640 thousand earned in a year. I’m not saying we go back to 90%, we shouldn’t, but we need to do a better job of people paying their fair share. (I consider it a sense of personal pride to pay taxes as it’s my country and I’ve always gotten a lot back from living here.) Next is that healthcare and education should be free or close to it. If the citizenry isn’t well educated or healthy, we start with a handicap when it comes to competing with the rest of the world. In other words, it’s tough to be the best in the world if you’re people aren’t at their best! Finally, we need to help people out of poverty. Many years ago, FDR got the country out of the depression by creating millions of jobs that got people back to working, back to getting paid, and back on their feet. A program or programs like that would go a long way to curing many of our ills – hunger, poverty, healthcare, homelessness.

Is that it? No, there are other proposals out there, too, many having to do with how government works, like term limits, eliminating the Electoral College for National elections, increasing the number of Congressional Representatives. Those are going to take far more time to debate and put into place. Frankly, I’m okay with all of them as our elected officials scare me. That’s my take on all of this. What’s yours?