Even Socialists Don't Want Socialism

The Democratic Socialists of America has about 80,000 members and Bernie Sanders raised about $200 million in 2020. That’s a lot of people and a lot of money. But very few socialists staff and finance their recommended alternative to capitalist workplaces, namely democratic worker cooperatives.

Here’s one explanation I’ve heard socialists give for why they don’t run more cooperatives: political activism is simply a more effective means of advancing socialism than running cooperatives. But I’m skeptical.

Consider an analogy. Suppose 80,000 people are supporters of pickleball and they have plenty of resources at their disposal. They think the world would be better if more people played pickleball—it’s good exercise, builds friendships, etc. So they want to advance the cause of pickleball.

Wouldn’t it be strange, though, if 80,000 pickleball supporters with millions of dollars to spend didn’t actually start some pickleball leagues to show others how great it is? It seems to me that running some pickleball leagues would, at the very least, be a big part of their plan to promote pickleball to new players. Perhaps there would be more to the promotion than just that (maybe they advertise, maybe they push local government to fund public pickleball courts, etc). But surely you’d expect funding and running some pickleball leagues to be critical when it comes to convincing people that pickleball is good.

Now, obviously pickleball isn’t the same thing as a collectivized workplace. Still, the principle is the same. So it’s strange that running worker cooperatives isn’t a big part of the plan to promote socialism if, in fact, they are significantly more advantageous for workers.

To be clear: I’m not claiming that socialists are hypocritical for not building socialist workplaces. Rather, I’m pointing out that working for a capitalist employer is the revealed preference of socialists themselves. And that’s fine: many people don’t want to take on the role and the risk of being a worker-owner in a cooperative. But if socialists themselves tend not to want socialism, that seems like a good reason not to impose it on everyone.