Socialism

I often hear people say that Obama is leading us toward socialism so I looked up the definition of Socialism.
Socialism is an economic system characterized by public ownership and centralized planning of all major industries (manufacturing, services, and energy), banks and insurance companies, agribusiness, transportation, the media, and medical facilities.
As I read that I am astounded that so called educated people believed that such a system would work. I will let my imagination run wild and set up a socialist type of country. First the government owns everything so they can agree to pay everyone the same salary regardless of what the job entails. Brain surgeons and CEO’s make the same as garbage collectors and janitors. That is easy enough to do although it begs the question as to why someone would go through all the training for no extra salary but this is not the tough part. How does the government decide on how many surgeons and how many janitors are needed and then how do they decide who will assume those positions. Next take production of goods and services. How many cars and how many clerks are needed and once again who are these people and how are they selected. Finally who decides who does the selecting?
It is obvious to me that such a system as pure socialism cannot exist in the real world but partial socialism is what most people refer to when they say Obama is tending toward socialism. The argument is how far toward socialism do we want to go. For all of my life the federal government has been assuming more responsibility. It appears that we are at a crossroad and the pendulum is beginning to swing back. Will the people who have become accustom to Big Brother be willing to give up some of their benefits and take on more personal responsibility? We will find out in November 2012.