Takeaways

• Discussing the questions of ownership, allocation, governance, and division of labor among different types of “socialist” economic systems will allow us to critically engage in creating the vision of the economic system we want to see.
• Neoliberal capitalism is marked by private ownership of the means of production, with commodity production and wage labor for the goal of profit maximization. 
• Social democracy is a gentler form of capitalism with stronger regulation of capital to protect workers, consumers and the environment, and a social safety net.
• Centralized planning is a system where the government owns and manages all businesses through top-down planning, while providing a robust welfare state.
• Market socialism is where firms are owned and/or managed by their workers (with no capitalist class), and compete in free markets. Democratic planning features worker and community councils from local to international levels who democratically plan all aspects of the economy.