Do you mean socialism or democratic socialism? They're very different and people tend to use the terms interchangeably. Socialism is an authoritarian system of social control which requires that the means of production, distribution, and exchange be owned or regulated by the community as a whole. Democratic socialism is, in effect, restrictions on free markets and democratic control over tax redistribution. Most Western nations (arguably all of them), including the U.S., are democratic socialist nations.
Socialist nations have a long and sordid history of failing at managing public infrastructure, so I assume you're not referring to socialism, but democratic socialism. If so, the distinction doesn't help us here. We still need to figure out the right balance of control and independence.
This is how the majority of the planet outside of the USA, Russia and former USSR states names these ideologies:
authoritarian capitalism -> fascism
democratic capitalism -> capitalism
democratic socialism -> socialism
authoritarian socialism -> communism
From the mixed economy wikipedia:
> Common to all mixed economies is a combination of free-market principles and principles of socialism.[5]
From the socialism page of wikipedia:
> While no single definition encapsulates the many types of socialism,[13] social ownership is the one common element,[6][14] and is considered left-wing.[15]
If you don't have to pay tolls for the majority of the roads that you drive on, you are living a mixed economy because those toll free roads are owned by the state, not by private companies or individuals, and are paid for by taxes. Which makes them a socialist element, most likely within a majority capitalist system. Which makes what you live in a mixed economy. The vast majority of countries on the planet are mixed economies.
It astounds me how this keeps coming up on HN over and over again.
I think to Europeans – especially Germany, France, Scandinavia… socialism refers to what you call Democratic socialism. Wheres the far ends of the spectrum are Communism vs Capitalism. I think this actually used to be a very natural distinction although the Neo-liberal movement have done a good job to paint out any form of socialism to be equal to Communism.
Socialist nations have a long and sordid history of failing at managing public infrastructure, so I assume you're not referring to socialism, but democratic socialism. If so, the distinction doesn't help us here. We still need to figure out the right balance of control and independence.