The word “Socialist” is an ambiguous term. To many Republican conservatives anything to the left of anarchy (no government) is “socialist”. On the other extreme there is “socialism” with government ownership of all the industries. In the middle is what we have in the U.S. where corporations are independent, but lightly taxed (after all the loopholes) and lightly regulated (after lobbyists and campaign contributions).
Government doesn’t have to formally own corporations to have total control. In Nazi Germany, the corporations were privately owned, but totally controlled by crushing unions, dictating what is to be done to the owners and above all enforcing control with a secret police known as the Gestapo. This was called “National Socialism”.
Government ownership socialism can coexist with independent corporations. There are countries where some of the industries are government owned. The United Kingdom is a good example where the healthcare industry is government owned. The hospitals are government owned. Doctors and nurses are employees of the government. Almost all of the rest of the economy is private or public corporations.
Now if a government extracted royalty fees or taxes from a big corporation and redistributed this corporate income to the people, it is a form of “socialism“. Alaska Governor Sarah Palin did just that! She was a Robin Hood socialist!
While she may have been done better by spending the money on education, local projects and creating jobs, it is a praiseworthy form of socialism. Why not do the same to exploitative corporations like Walmart and redistribute some income to the employees? This could also get them off food stamps and Medicaid. It would relieve them of much economic hardship. It would reduce the federal deficit.
Sarah Palin may yet lead to a better kind of Republican party!
This is an off subject comment on the single payer and more healthcare reform website.
http://Reorganizehealthcare.com