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Socialism - Everyone contributes money to social programs that benefit everyone. Taxes are higher, but the money is used for the benefit of all. The government exists to oversee the programs that support the people. This HAS worked in many countries around the world. It is not about everyone being economically equal in society, it's about accessibility of care and benefit for everyone regardless of their starting point.
Communism - Everyone is to be on equal footing and wealth is to be evenly distributed among everyone. Everything is, in theory, shared and belongs to everyone. The government exists to oversee the transition of society, then is meant to step aside rather than remain above the rest of the people. This has NOT worked as no one has ever successfully established this and then stepped aside. It leaves the door wide open for abuse of power.
This is completely incorrect, cite any socialist or communist philosophers agreeing with you.
Socialism - any system of government where the workers own the means of production. This has nothing to do with welfare or healthcare or any of that, just that the working class owns the factories and other private property. (The marxist and original definition of private property is property that generates capital, not your toothbrush, which is personal property. Same with your home.)
communism - a post socialist system where the workers own the means of production, currency has been abolished, there are no class divisions or state (note the marxist concept of the state is probably not what you're thinking if this is new to you.)
That's just social democracy, not socialism.
In your communism definition, the government is not supposed to step aside, it's supposed to stop having a function as classes are eliminated, because the state's purpose is the oppression of one class by the other.
More simply, socialism is about indirect redistribution of wealth through taxes paying for social programs that benefit everyone. Communism seeks literal redistribution of wealth to maintain equal economic status for all.
Socialism might also seek the direct redistribution of wealth via wealth taxes.
The difference is primarily in collecting wealth via taxes after the fact, rather than having a central body try and actively redistribute everything before payment.
Glad I learned something today. I didn't know the difference until now. Thanks.
Just FYI, the 2 parent comments are completely wrong and you shouldn't remember these definitions.
Socialism = means of production are owned by society, but classes still exist (the working class rules over the former bourgeoisie)
When that process is finished and classes and contradictions that lead to them have been completely abolished, that's communism.
Which is the same society that Anarchists want to achieve, the only difference is that Anarchists don't have a coherent plan on how to get there.
It's important to consider the fact that an economy does not have to be entirely Capitalist, Socialist, or Communist.
Most countries already have Socialist and Capitalist components at this point.
What I'd personally like to see is Land be a communist system. Necessities be Socialist. Luxuries be Capitalist.
Every citizen of a country should own and share in the land of the country equally. It should not be possible to privately own land. If land is leased or rented from this pool for individual or corporate use, that money should be given to everyone equally. Likely that would be handled by a government in reality, but it should be fairly hands off other than facilitating the transfer of value.
Necessities like Basic Housing, Basic Food, Public Transportation, Medical Care, Parks, Rec Centers, Schools, Police, Courts, etc. should be all handled with socialism. Where the government collects taxes from the land value and capitalist markets, and operates these systems itself for the benefit of everyone who needs them.
If you want more than necessities, capitalism should stick around to handle those desires. Want a bigger fancier house, some fancy oranges from another country, a suit made of silk, go ahead and buy it on a capitalist market either with the money you receive from your portion of land ownership value, or through participating in the capitalist market yourself.
This is completely wrong. Social welfare and shared infrastructure have nothing to do with Socialism. Socialism is an economic model where the means of production are owned by the workers, nothing more, nothing less.
You clearly don't understand how many countries operate. Or you're somehow misunderstanding what "means of production" or "workers" means.
My local electricity provider, and all of it's power production equipment, transmission lines, meters, etc. are owned by the government. So is every hospital in the country. Almost every road is public.
Means of production is any sort of capital used to build value, so things like infrastructure, buildings, factories, machinery, tools, etc.
Workers does not mean the people that work in a particular building or factory, it means the class of people as a whole.
It's pretty obvious that if the government owns something, under a democracy that thing is is owned by the citizens of the region. Even Marx mentions that socialism would use the state for collective ownership.
Yes, they may be state-owned, but you still live in a bourgeois state with capitalist ownership structure, so the state doesn't act in the workers interest, but to uphold the capitalist order.
By the way, would you mind telling me what country that is? Most EU countries with strong state-owned infrastructure that I'm aware of have been forced to liberalize, so for example in my country lots of former state enterprises are now private profit-bound businesses that are just 100% owned by the state.
Canada
You're stretching the realities here with your assertions. The vast majority of what the government does is in the interest of workers. It could be better, absolutely, but it's a far cry from some dystopian corpo-state. The government could move towards more positive worker benefits, but a lot of those workers won't actually vote for them if they did because people aren't entirely rational. So we're essentially getting what we deserve right now.
Profit-bound but still owned by the state would still be socialist. There's no requirement that the means of production not generate profit to qualify as being owned by the workers.
So you're a Social Democrat, got it. Those are pretty out of fashion over here and gave up pretending wanting to achieve Socialism long ago. Sorry, but I don't really think that what you're talking about is Socialism, it's liberal reformism.