This article is one in a series that examines claims about how socialism would improve America.
Each article examines a promise, and contrasts it with the reality that shows the hollowness of that promise.

When people are asked what socialism means their answers tend to show that they don’t know. In their minds they’re intermixing capitalism and socialism.

To many people socialism is merely another form of capitalism: it’s about private production along with equality, getting free things, and being nice.
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Likewise, a YouGov survey (Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation 2020, 20) finds that while 32 percent of Americans identify socialism as the government owning all property and controlling “nearly 100% of the national economy,” approximately equal in size (31 percent) are those who say that socialism means “a free market economy with private property but one where the government provides ample social welfare benefits.” And 15 percent equate socialism with “a free market economy with private property where the government intervenes when necessary to create an even playing field for all citizens and businesses.”

So, many Americans’ definition of socialism doesn’t make it a system that is distinct from capitalism. To them—perhaps those who are more likely to have a favorable opinion of socialism—it’s about private production along with equality, getting free things, and being nice.

Clearly, people hear the “sizzle” of socialism but don’t know what it really implies.

Claim:  Socialism won’t affect small business

Socialist advocates essentially promise that socialism perfects our society. Just a little regulation will make things just and fair for everyone.

In the United States, the phrase “democratic socialism” is often met with skepticism, if not outright fearmongering. Political and corporate elites warn that such a system would mean the end of free enterprise, a collapse of innovation, and the rise of an all-powerful government controlling every facet of the economy. These claims are nothing more than scare tactics designed to protect the status quo—a system where corporate greed reigns supreme, workers are disposable, and wealth concentrates in the hands of a few while the majority struggle to survive.

The truth is that democratic socialism does not mean abolishing businesses or eliminating competition. Instead, it creates an economic framework that balances private enterprise, worker empowerment, and public ownership in a way that ensures economic prosperity is shared, not hoarded. Let’s break down how businesses would function in a democratic socialist system—and why they’d be better for everyone except the billionaire class.

Contrary to popular misconceptions, democratic socialism does not abolish private businesses. Entrepreneurs can still start companies, small businesses can still thrive, and markets still function—just with ethical boundaries in place. The difference is that businesses would be held accountable to labor protections, environmental regulations, and fair wage standards rather than being free to exploit workers and devastate communities for profit.

According to them, what’s wrong with free enterprise is a lack of ethics. It’s true that American society could improve its business ethics. I wrote about this in my article Is Capitalism Immoral? But the secret socialist ingredient is to add officials and activists to company management. They’d help the company conform to socialist desires. But what sort of effect would that have on business fortunes?

Reality:  Businesses will indeed be regulated to death

This new sort of business guidance is illustrated by the World Economic Forum. Here is what its president said about how businesses should be run:

WEF chief executive officer Klaus Schwab described three core components of the Great Reset: the first involves creating conditions for a “stakeholder economy”; the second component includes building in a more “resilient, equitable, and sustainable” way—based on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) metrics which would incorporate more green public infrastructure projects; the third component is to “harness the innovations of the Fourth Industrial Revolution” for public good.

These socialist “ethical boundaries” aren’t rules, but merely the agendas of these “stakeholders,” external people who claim to have vested interest in how a company is run. Alongside the shareholders, the actual business owners, they get to vote and steer company decisions. An example of this activity is how Volkswagen can’t adapt to market pressures because of the veto power of the unions on its board.

These new masters won’t have the company’s best interests in mind, and they have no financial stake in the company’s success. If through their guidance the company fails, they can walk away without losses. Those losses are borne by the now powerless shareholders.

It is estimated that there are over 36 million small businesses in America. If each one gets socialist counselors, that leads to a massive bureaucracy – a typical socialist condition. That can’t possibly help business efficiency. It certainly never helped any of the socialist countries in the Soviet bloc.

More reality:  Socialists still want your stuff

There are socialist factions who don’t like even this much freedom for businesses. They mean to confiscate them. Or, like the new leaders of New York City, they will redefine what it means to own something:

We’ve treated property as an individualized good and not a collective good, we are transitioning to treating it as a collective good. That will mean that families, especially white families, but some people of color families that are homeowners as well, will have a different relationship to property than we currently have.

Being able to create this “different relationship to property” is almost as good as nationalization. The socialists get to control property without the fuss of confiscating it.

Depressing reality:  Wealth taxes

Since “wealth is a social creation and should be controlled by society as a whole,” what you own, even your “personal” property, is at risk from wealth taxes. After all, why stop at taxing billionaires? The insatiable maw of public spending will run out of really rich people to beggar, and will then turn to the “middle class” for their savings and their homes.

Conclusion

Any which way you look at it, the socialists promise to leave YOU alone but won’t really. They haven’t changed their stripes, but are only trying to disguise their intent until they can’t be removed.

When advertising “sizzle” gets you to buy a product that doesn’t live up to its billing, you can always do better with your next purchase. But if you believe the socialist “sizzle,” and give them a chance to change things, you won’t get to repent and change your mind. Remember:  our Christian culture is the only game in town.

What’s best is to honor God’s ways, to reinforce and rebuild our Christian society. We must keep believing in God our deliverer, and act as light for society, just as Jesus said we would be (Matthew 5:14-16).