Despite what people believe, Democratic Socialism is not opposed to Capitalism. It actually compliments Capitalism. Democratic Socialism is democratically deciding as a society that certain things (like health care) are rights for every citizen (as many of the worlds happiest nations have found out).
It is not full socialism which puts everything under the governments regulation.
But Bernie Sanders is pushing Democratic Socialism because he has fairly amazing abilities of foresight when he predicted ISIS filling the political vacuum and the great recession. He sees what many young people see but older generations have a hard time comprehending. It's a concept that is obvious to the younger generation because we have been born into it. It is a very simple truth that is inevitable at our current pace of technological improvement.
We are all about to be replaced with robots and artificial intelligence.
Think you are in an industry that is safe from such advancement? Think again. What are you? A stock broker? Please, you will be the first to go. Are you into coding, like me? Sorry, we have literally worked ourselves out of a job.
Maybe you are creative and like to write books. Well, A.I. loves to write books more than you do! Songwriters are safe though, right? Wrong, they have already been replaced and you did not even notice. Movies? Yeah, they are out too.
You can always fall back on working at McDonald's though, right? Hmmm, maybe not. Walmart? I would not count on it.
Sure, there may always be some humans doing those jobs, but they will be a niche and novelty, not the norm.
All that to say what the younger generation already knows. We will be replaced. Sure, it will take some time and there will be resistance but ultimately progress will happen. And mainly because Capitalist businessmen cannot ignore the cost savings.
So what happens when we have all been properly put out of a job and we are not billionaires? We will have to rely on the government or the corporations who no longer have a need for us. By then it will probably be something fairly simple. With solar panels getting more efficient and electric cars going farther and 3D printing of housing drastically reducing building costs and 3D printed food becoming super cheap the cost of living is bound to plummet.
When this happens, the top 1% may hold not just the majority of the wealth in America (as they currently do) but almost all of it. At which point we will have two options.
The first option would be the Republican response. Sorry, you cannot earn any money and are a failure. You can go into debt the rest of your life and be a corporate slave. You will own nothing and have no hope of ever paying off your debt.
The second option is to rely on the government. In such a scenario, I can see why the Dutch are testing out a $20,000 a year guaranteed income. The majority of America may need a guaranteed income in the near future.
Because in this future we are creating, Democratic Socialism is the only form of freedom we will enjoy.
