"For more than a century, socialism has been a convenient boogeyman, endlessly useful for scaring the U.S. populace into accepting whatever thin gruel conservatives and corporate elites have chosen to dish out. Socialism has two core meanings: first, control by the public, or by employees, of the means of production and distribution of goods; and, second, the use of public funds to provide benefits and services for the people (especially disadvantaged people). Examples of the latter include government health insurance (begun in Germany in 1883, ironically, as an attempt to reduce the appeal of successful socialist politicians), old-age pensions (again, Germany, 1889) and unemployment compensation (Germany, 1927)... In the current moment, we are all being forced to ask ourselves who is more free — a person whose health insurance is provided by the government and therefore continues whether they are employed or not? Or the person whose health insurance disappears when they get laid off by a pandemic? Today, socialism is enjoying something of a renaissance as a skeptical generation asks probing questions about capitalism: “How can it be right that under capitalism some people have so much while others have so little? In particular, what do capitalists do to merit their stupendous wealth? That is to say, what is it that they do that entitles them, morally, to so large a slice of the economic pie?”"