Socialism

A woman named Cortez is running for congress and she is a democratic socialist. This is not Marxist Socialism where the government owns all means of production of goods and services but more like the governments in western Europe. These countries provide more social benefits for their people than is done in the United States and this is what her campaign is about. The European Union (EU) has certain advantages in that they pay less for their defense and less for organizations like the United Nations and NATO. If the US paid an equivalent amount that would free up about $500 billion dollars per year that could be spent on social programs. The question is whether the US wants to move toward a democratic socialist government like the EU. One way to compare is the efficiency of each type of government and this is often done using the gross domestic product (GDP). The US with a population of 330 million has a GDP of $19 trillion and the EU has a population of 510 million and a GDP of $17 trillion.