The Partial Observer by Gayane Torosyan

Socialism: What the Heck Does It Even Mean?

Many Americans are quick to label the politics of former President Joe Biden or Vice President Kamala Harris as “socialist.” But I’d wager my 13th salary—the annual bonus Soviet workers received—that few of my college students could pass a quiz defining the term.

What most people think of as socialism is often more about the ideology or political movement that advocates for it, rather than the actual economic system. At its core, socialism involves public ownership of the means of production and the elimination of private property—concepts largely absent from American policy debates.

Yes, in the Soviet Union, people lived rent-free in government-provided apartments (unless they joined a housing co-op). Utilities and basic goods were dirt cheap. But so were salaries. And the value of free public healthcare? Often exactly what it cost: nothing. “Medicine for nothing is worth nothing,” Soviet Russians used to say. With few exceptions, free medicine did little good.

Medical students earned tuition-free degrees, but a system rife with scarcity and corruption bred ruthless competition—especially among children of the privileged elite, the so-called priviligentsia. The result? More opportunists and butchers than doctors and surgeons.