What is the difference between a communist and a socialist?

[Mr. Smartypants]

Not exactly. People throw these words around without knowing what they mean, so it's easy to get confused.

Socialism is when a government provides goods or services at taxpayer expense. Every modern developed successful country uses some combination of socialism and capitalism. For instance, in the US we have -socialized- education, fire and police protection, roads and bridges and other public infrastructure. Because we want people to have access to these things without regard to economic status.

Communism is a total form of socialism, but a particular kind. Communism is a 'command economy'. All the means of production (factories, farms mines, etc., anything that makes money) are owned by The People, and the govt. decides what factory makes what, what farm grows what, how much, and what the prices will be. The Soviet Union did this in a series of 'five year plans'.

People tend to see communism as totalitarian, a dictatorship. But it isn't necessarily that way. The original idea of communism was that the government is supposed to be democratic, an instrument of the will of the people, just as it is here (supposed to be). In the real world, though, communism has never been democratic because it's never been tried in a country that had a pre-existing tradition of democracy. So the people of these countries ended up trading one dictatorship for another.

But neither socialism and communism are incompatible with democracy.