On Socialism

I have degrees in mathematics and economics. The THEORY of Socialism is alluring but, to my knowledge, no one has managed to make it work in practice.

Countries such as Denmark, Norway and Sweden have arguably been successful with forms of Democratic Socialism which is a fancy way of saying the government pays for benefits and services through taxation. It can be argued that Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, SNAP, WIC and TANIF are Democratic Socialist programs either completely (Medicaid, SNAP) or partially (Medicare).

Notice the multiple uses of the term "IN THEORY" in what follows.

Socialism assumes that the government owns the means of production. If grocery stores were nationalized then, in theory, labor could be paid from the store profits. But there would be no shareholders to take a cut and no board worrying about how to make investors on Wall Street happy.

So the labor isn't being stolen. It's being paid for. What is eliminated from the equation are the stock holders who contribute no labor but share in the profits anyway.

If the city owned ALL of the grocery stores then, in theory, it's leverage with food producers and other vendors would be high enough to drive very cost effective bargains because of quantity and payment guarantees. This would, in theory, improve profit margins or allow a reduction in prices.

The city could also, in theory, institute initiatives to reduce or eliminate theft. It's hard to introduce such initiatives when your competition on the next block doesn't have such incentives because they tend to be unpopular. But when you control ALL grocery stores then, in theory, you might get away with it.