Well, we have a bunch of people writing about something they know nothing about, being led by someone ignorant or deceiving.

Let's deal with some cold, hard, verifiable Facts.

First of all, let's learn what socialism is: Socialism is an economic theory in which the Government owns or controls the means of production. . No one in this country advocates Socialism by this definition.

Communism (which no one is talking about here) is an economic theory of revolution which leads to a classless society in which the government (or everyone) owns everything in common, and the government controls both politics and the economy. Obviously, no one in this country advocates this either, following the serial failures of that system all over the world.

However, there is a body of scholars who attempt to measure happiness in the world, and you can read about it here:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/20/world/worlds-happiest-countries.html?mabReward=CTM1&recp=3&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&region=CColumn&module=Recommendation&src=rechp&WT.nav=RecEngine

They have a 'top hits' list of countries they deem the happiest, and the top five countries are
1 Norway
2 Denmark
3 Iceland
4 Switzerland
5 Finland

These countries (mostly, not certain about Switzerland) feature the so-called Nordic model, or Nordic Capitalism, or Nordic Social Democracy, advocated by Bernie Sanders in the last election. It is not Socialism at all by the definition given above.

This is (according to Wikipedia) "a combination of free market capitalism with comprehensive welfare state and collective bargaining at the national level."

Common traits are "a 'universalist welfare state aimed specifically at enhancing individual autonomy and promoting social mobility; a corporatist system involving a tripartite arrangement were representatives of labor and employers negotiate wages and labor market policy mediated by the government, and a commitment to widespread private ownership, free markets and free trade."

I point out that tha four of the five 'happiest' nations practice this form of government.

On that same list, the U.S.A. is listed at number fourteen.

I dispute that Social Security and Medicare are socialism. In both one pays into a fund, which is to be leveraged by investment. One fund is for retirement which makes it to be like any orher retirement plan. Medicare operates the same; investment leveraging, not unlike any other health plan. The element that many conservatives dislike is that both mandate saving current earnings for the future use - how dare givernment tell me how to handle my money they say. Where things began to derail was Congress' restricting investment to Federal securities that were held to de-minimis earnings while the rest of the investment community was roaring - think 1945 - 1995. These actions by Congress in no small part enabled the winning of the Cold War. That our national language is English and not Russian can be chalked up to reduced earnings by Social Security and Medicare savings. It is payback time.