Capitalism is not sustainable over the long term.

[PETRUS]

77. Some thoughts:

First, it's not possible to disentangle politics and economics. That seems self-evident to me, but I don't know if it's the case for others, so if you'd like an explanation, let me know.

Second, socialism and democracy are also effectively inseparable. I know you don't think so, or you wouldn't have written "There has never been a nation that had a democratic political system and a socialist economic system," so I'll explain. Socialists have a number of different ideas about methods, but the intention is always the same: worker control of production and distribution, and/or democratic (i.e. "social" ) control of production and distribution. That can't be a reality without some kind of democracy.

In every nation with a government that is at least somewhat responsive to the will of the people, there is some democratic control over production and distribution. For example, health, safety and environmental regulations, minimum wages, and certain aspects of fiscal policy are all ways of exerting some (indirect) social/democratic control over production and distribution. It's not just a coincidence that the kinds of policies we associate with the New Deal or Europe's social democracies were often first proposed by socialists and socialist parties. That doesn't mean liberal democracies are socialist - they are mixed economies - but socialism is part of the picture. Norway is more socialist than the US (and it's more socialist than Venezuela, for that matter).

There isn't a consensus among modern American socialists about how best to proceed. But most of the energy is going into pushing policies that move the US closer to the Nordic model. Other ideas include rewriting the rules of corporate governance to encourage worker-cooperatives and/or require co-determination for businesses above a certain size. Although most socialists would like to see more public funding/administration for some things (e.g. education and healthcare), nationalizing industry doesn't have much currency these days.