To put it simply: socialism is a specific political theory and social welfare is government assistance for basic needs (what basic means can vary from country to country, of course. There isn't a country in Europe these days that is socialist. Now, socialism as a movement and as a political theory had influence on the European welfare states, but that doesn't make them socialism.

The misconception in America stems probably from people like Bernie Sanders that call themselves socialists and praise the social welfare systems of Europe, somewhere this merging in the minds of many Americans as synonyms instead of two distinct things.

[–] brain_in_a_box@hexbear.net 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Socialism is not "when the government does stuff"

[–] muad_dibber@lemmygrad.ml 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

To push back on this a little, the US did intentionally create an international division of labor after WW2, where europe and the countries it just defeated (Germany, Japan, Italy) would let the US handle the war industry / being the world's cop / capitalist enforcers, so they could focus on consumer products, and serve as anti-communist bulwarks with high standards of living.

European countries do save value by letting the US handle most of their defense, that they can then allocate to social services.

Of course the majority of value, and their social welfare programs, still come from unequal exchange / a tax on imports on goods produced by super-exploited global south proles.

[–] marsokod@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

Defense money is not lost, it pays people within your country. And you can even decide whether it goes to big corps or small companies.