I keep hearing the same rhetoric: the US will never be a socialist country.
What troubles me most is when voters repeat those words without really knowing what they are saying:
- Most of them enjoy the social benefits of the US system.
- Others never take the time to reflect on what a socialist country actually means.
Let’s be clear about the word. Strictly, socialism means public ownership of the means of production, but that is not what anyone means when they call France socialist. What they mean is a government that uses public money to support, protect, and rescue. By their own definition, the US is a socialist country, and I am going to prove it. The real question is not whether the US is socialist, but for whom. Stay with me.
How did the US produce the most billionaires on Earth, and the first trillionaire? Not without public money. Elon Musk crossed $1 trillion in June 2026 largely on the value of SpaceX, a company that grew on NASA and Pentagon contracts.
When the banking system crashed in 2008, who saved it? Taxpayers funded the rescue, and the Federal Reserve kept credit flowing almost free. Yes, the banks eventually repaid the bailout, with interest. But when they were drowning, the public threw them a rope. Millions of families facing foreclosure got no rope at all.
The airlines were rescued after 9/11 and again in 2020. The same goes for universities, hospitals, public education, public transportation, recreational parks, and the list goes on and on.
Now, assuming that those making these claims don’t know these facts, what are they voting against? What do they call socialist? Medicare for All? Making life affordable for all? Free child care? Eliminating student debt? Free public universities? Tax cuts for low- and average-income families? Bigger government?
On November 4, the day after the midterms, Senator Bernie Sanders laid out what Democrats should do when they take control of Congress in January: a wealth tax on billionaires, Medicare for All, tuition-free public colleges, universal child care, and a $20 minimum wage. His conclusion: none of this is radical. It is what a strong majority of Americans want. By his count, 66% support Medicare for All.
That same day, on Fox News, I heard the re-elected Nebraska senator say: socialism has never worked, it is not working in France, so it will never work in the US.
I laughed.
Did he understand what he was saying? Or is he playing the same game?
The billionaires receive government contracts and subsidies to do the government’s work, then they profit from them and become wealthy. The government finances their projects, they make huge profits, and they might repay the government, or they might get forgiveness.
Sometimes the game is quieter. Through federal loan guarantees, the government promises to repay the lender if a company fails, so when it goes bankrupt, the public pays the bank. And during COVID, most Paycheck Protection loans were simply forgiven.
But these people don’t want socialism; they say it loud and clear. Meanwhile, working people with almost nothing, many of them relying on the same social programs, repeat the slogan day and night and vote against policies designed to make their own lives easier.
The government doesn’t own everything, but it underwrites almost everything that matters to the wealthy: their contracts, their loans, and their losses. And they want you to believe this is not a socialist country, so that you keep running from paycheck to paycheck, with no time to see the system you are paying for.
This is socialism, not for you, but for the world’s only trillionaire so far, the billionaires, and the millionaires.
Dr. Ash
