Brand New Sentence

What, exactly, is wrong with socialism?

Literally and figuratively: "everyone else." It's not the ideology, it's the implementation. Let me explain.

I'm of the opinion that the idea of everyone living on an even playing field, without the capitalistic intent to "exploit and extract", is noble and worthwhile. On paper, it works brilliantly - just like every other model for government. The problem comes in where it meets the real world, specifically around cultural values and psychology.

Right now, the biggest problems the US has boil down to a lot of people acting in an "my group vs your group" mentality. This is the biggest hurdle to overcome and really kills this whole thing in the cradle. Sometimes the dividing line is ideological, economical, geographical, political, or just plain bigotry of some flavor. No matter how you slice it, this behavior is anathema to socialism. You can't get people to organize in a manner that helps everyone, if a huge chunk of that group insists that's not right because it's fair. Without that kind of organization, you're left to force those values on people, which will be quite obvious and not without blow-back. Not to mention, doing so requires a governmental body strong enough to act out of unchecked corruption, which usually creates new problems.

Meanwhile, being a stupidly rich country means it's absolutely worthwhile for our home-grown billionaires to keep a death-grip on the levers of power. In the same way you or I aren't likely to vote against self-interest, the architects of corruption aren't likely to let action take place that loosens their grip. I'm not saying the economy needs to take a nose dive to put this engine fire out, but I'm at a loss to describe a way to end this particular part of our collective waking nightmare.

So you can't just "do a socialism" because of everyone else, and how those people will cite that everyone else is why that's not a good idea. And the people with the most power right now won't let it happen because there goes their meal/yacht ticket. So basically, "everyone else".

I think it's possible to get there, but there's no getting there in one big leap. Gradual change and a long period (a century?) of a hybrid model, where we have a little bit of everything going on until "being fair to everyone" wins out.