User blog comment:Gavin of Univerism/Socialist, Captalist or Communist?/@comment-3112181-20130922002510

Democratic socialist. I support a national economy ran by the people, but under governmental regulation. In creating economic equality, modern socialist nations have been shown to have much less poverty than capitalist nations (consider the US's povety percantage of 14% vs. France, a highly socialist nation, with a poverty rate of only 6%; not to mention the Nordic countries, which all have markets influenced by socialist ideals, and also maintain the soundest economies on Earth). Aside from poverty, universal healthcare and regulated trade are definitely pluses.

As we've seen with America in the past century, major Wall Street banks and corporations, thanks to the Federal Reserve Act, are able to undermine the federal government and hold an unthinkable amount of influence on Capitol Hill. This is perhaps the greatest danger of privately-owned companies in a capitalist society. In a socialist society, where all corporations are owned and operated by the government, this isn't a problem. It's simple logic: a nation's economy obviously plays an integral role in that nation's development and prosperity (or lack thereof), so it would only make sense that all economic endeavours are left to the people really running the country: the government. Unemployment rates have also been shown to be dramatically lower in socialist-based economies than in capitalist ones.

Also, as said below, communism is NOT an economic idea. Rather, it's an extreme socialist movement, and the common assumption is that all socialists are communists. As a matter of fact, I hate communism (due to the fascist aspects it grants a leader of a nation) but nevertheless consider myself a socialist. Marxist theory defines communism as just radical socialism, and many nations in the turn of the 20th century adapted this idea of radical socialism to serve as the basis in their fledgling government (refer to Hegel's Pendulum Theory for further explanation as to why). However, the school of socialism I prefer to follow, democratic socialism, has all the benefits of a socialist economy, but is managed by a representative government. And it's a form of government widely utilised today, in nations such as France, Sweden, India, Portugal, and even Italy. Therefore, a nation can indeed be socialist without being Leninist-Marxist.