"I'm not going to listen to the arguments of people more educated and knowledgeable than myself in a given subject because it does not agree with my a priori and anecdotally based conclusions about how the world as I see it works."
The dictionary is a good place for pups to start, but it is a purely layman's context especially when it comes to political ideologies.
'Public' does not automatically mean 'state' or even 'government'.Socialism is an economic system where the means of production and distribution of goods are held in public (yes that means government) hands. Capitalism is the economic system where the means of production and distribution of goods are held in private hands. Now we can have intelligent discussions about how much we should embrace one or the other over this or that, but the defining characteristics of the two systems remain distinct. You cannot narrow the definition of socialism to a particular application in one circumstance that fits your personal narrative. Despite what Endus would have you believe, state control of the means of production is a defining characteristic of socialism, and it is therefore authoritarian in its very nature.
A very simplistic and binary view that doesn't account for the fact that public and private benefit are not always mutually exclusive, nor are they zero sum.Now you might find a functioning socialist society where the state uses its control over the means of production and distribution of goods for the benefit of the majority of its people, but that only succeeds so long as the individuals within that power structure decide to do so out of the goodness of their hearts. Capitalism on the other hand does not assume anyone will do anything out of the goodness of their heart. It assumes individuals will always work towards their maximum personal benefit. Capitalism does not guarantee equal outcome, or opportunity. It just supposes that outcomes aught to be decided on the personal merits of the individual instead of the merits of the collective. Like I said earlier, I'm not a purist. I believe a certain amount of government regulation is required to maintain a competitive environment. The means of production however, aught to remain solidly in private hands.
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They're as good as yours, to be frank.