By the way, socialism as Mabus described it hasn’t worked in the way he would like because Marxism is commonly implemented in countries with a long history of authoritarianism and overall political turmoil.

Totalitarianism is not the only reason why socialism does not work out as promised.

Real ACTUAL socialism in its purest form is a COMMUNITY effort, NOT a state effort, to control the means of production and distribution.

But unless members of the COMMUNITY engage in this effort out of their own FREE CHOICE this is effectively the same as your “state capitalism” where the COMMUNITY leaders and enforcers are the state.

And even “REAL actual socialism” is likely to fail, unless it is done on a small scale where membership in the community is tightly controlled and screened. Example of this are the Israeli Kibutz communities, most of which are in constant financial trouble. Often what happens there is that members who find themselves with an earning potential greater than the life style the community can offer, simply leave.

Look at Haliburton, look at every lobbyist in Washington, look at Enron

All have to do with either using and abusing government power, or failure of government oversight mechanisms that already exist. What you’re describing is the phenomenon of “crony capitalism”, whose abuses grow with growing government power.

Socialism, when done correctly and when allowed to work…

Only that it’s just somehow never done correctly. The only socialism done correctly is a very minimalist socialism, otherwise its failures just make things worse.

…and allows anyone to be as wealthy as they want to be, but only if society also gains from their wealth. After all why would society want to produce a wealthy powerful entity to live among it as a parasite to slowly degrade the society?

There are many problems with this. Not the least of which is who decides what’s beneficial to society and why. I’ll bet that most of the time, whoever gets to decide will just happen to deem what’s good for society to be one and the same as what’s good for him. It’s human nature. One only needs to observe politics anywhere in the world to see that.

I am a socialist, because I believe in humanity.

I’m anti-socialist for the same reason.

Many of us feel that this has not been applied broadly enough, and would like to expand it. That’s where the health care socialization comes in. Some of us believe the current bill doesn’t nearly go far enough and that the only real solution is a universal healthcare solution. To be honest, though, I’d just settle for regulating insurance companies to be not-for-profit.

Anyway, communism is the belief that government should control ALL commerce, down to newspaper stands. Every civilian is also an employee of the state. I don’t like this, because it creates basically one giant corporation that owns everyone in the country. It leads to totalitarianism and is just generally now how I envision a polite society forming.

Capitalism is the next thing down from communism, in my opinion, especially under a free market. Corporations buy and control us, and they can interfere with our lives greatly. Look at Haliburton, look at every lobbyist in Washington, look at Enron… I mean ask anyone from California during the whole Enron debacle and they’ll tell you how much a corporation can ruin your life.

Socialism, when done correctly and when allowed to work, flows WITH the market. It creates a stable (yet dynamic) minimum wage, and allows anyone to be as wealthy as they want to be, but only if society also gains from their wealth. After all why would society want to produce a wealthy powerful entity to live among it as a parasite to slowly degrade the society?

I am a socialist, because I believe in humanity.