I see the meme of R.Wolff making fun of the idea that socialism is when 'the government does stuff'. I unironically thought... that was what socialism was...? Regulations, public programs, increased oversight by a body that isn't incentivised by profit? These are all government initiatives right?
Tell me why i'm wrong.
Yeah the two birdseye view definitions of socialism are "social ownership of the means of production" and "a transitionary state between capitalism and communism". For the most part, in North America, you're only dealing with the first definition, however in left spaces it does help to be clear when talking about socialism.
Focusing on the first one, there are goods and services which are under social ownership such as firefighters, healthcare (at least here), libraries, garbage pick up, etc. There are also millions of pages of regulations, thousands of government employees, and other government initiatives with the express goal of keeping the means of production away from social ownership, or for funneling capital into the hands of fewer and fewer. This is the opposite of social ownership, and you'll find that the majority of government actions fall under this category.