Socialism is defined as “government ownership of the means of production and distribution.” But that is not what people debate when they discuss the merits of socialism.

The whole point of socialism is to turn the economy over to bureaucrats. It doesn’t matter who owns the shares, what socialists want is for professors to run the economy. So what we really argue about when the word “socialism” comes up is not who OWNS industry but who RUNS it.

It doesn’t really matter if government owns shares on the New York Stock Exchange as long as the government doesn’t use those shares to run it. Switzerland used to get a lot of its government revenue from Swissair, but it left the running of that airline to the managers and only judged the managers by how much money they made, like any other stockholder.

But if the professors are to tell everybody what to do, that means that the market can’t. Either supply and demand runs things or professors run things. That is why liberals are always denouncing “commercialism.” They want professors to decide what audiences watch, not the audiences themselves.

So the real argument over socialism is not about “the ownership of the means of production and distribution.” If a system is run by the market, professors have as little use for it if it is government-owned Swissair as if it is privately owned.

Professors no longer insist on socialism because they have discovered they can run thing through bureaucrats and lawyers no matter who owns things.

Socialism is just like all forms of leftism. It is a means by which professors could rule the world, and professors teach it in college. Leftists are people who never outgrew their college education, or people who have an inferiority complex because they didn’t get one (See my latest book, “Why Johnny Can’t Think.” which is subtly advertised in the flashing red letters at the top of this page).