That Democratic Socialism is a good System

As to the issue of implementation, the con is justified in asking this question, as this is an issue which has divided the socialist movement for decades. Those of us call ourselves democratic socialists advocate a gradual reformist approach to socialism rather than a revolutionary approach to achieving our goals. We would not ban private ownership, rather we would institute structural reforms which favor social ownership and gradually move away from capitalism. Policies to achieve this end would laws giving workers more collective bargaining rights and power within their workplaces, providing funds for workers who want to purchase their workplace from private owners if their workplace is about to be sold or closed down, nationalizing businesses which are about to collapse and then handing them over to the workers of that business, organizing unemployed workers into worker co-ops to provide them with employment, etc. And while I do not believe that we will see the complete abolition of capitalism or corporations in my lifetime, I believe that steps can, should and must be taken to transition our economy and our society away from capitalism and towards democratic socialism.The Con brings up the idea of stock ownership of enterprises, however, this is in no way related to what is being discussed. An Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) is where a trust holds stocks of a company on the behalf of the employees, however, the employees themselves do not own the company, and there is no democratic system of management. What we propose replacing private corporations with Worker Cooperatives. Co-ops are based on the idea of one worker, one vote, and are effectively an extension of democracy from the political realm to the economy.The Con states that it is unfair to take companies from entrepreneurs and "visionaries." There are two problems with this notion. First, the con's belief rests upon the idea that the power which business owners have over their workers is justified solely by the fact that they started the business, however, simply starting the business does not justify their power. Power derives from the consent of the governed, and in the case of a business, this means the employees of that business. Secondly, social ownership is not "taking" a business from the person or persons who started that business, it is simply expanding the ownership of that company. As long as the founder of that business works for it or is a member of the co-op, they will still be an owner alongside every other member.The next claim which is made is that no one would start a business under democratic socialism, however, this is simply illogical. Businesses are started to fulfill some demand which is not being met. People will always be developing new products and services, or there will be some demand in the community which is not being supplied, and thus people will still start businesses to fulfill the demand.In his critique of the statement from DSA, the Con makes two points. The first point is that decentralization is "impractical". The Con claims this was addressed earlier in the argument, however, he never did make any comment concerning decentralization and thus it has gone conceded. The second point he makes is that nationalizing steel and energy would be "preposterous" because these industries "grew out of economic freedom". In reality, both steel and energy have been successfully nationalized all over the world. In the UK steel was nationalized for much of the second half of the 20th Century, and numerous countries have nationalized their energy sectors (both extraction and electricity), including India, Mexico, Venezuela, Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador, Brazil, and Norway. The con claims that nationalizing the energy sector and electrical infrastructure would prevent a transition to renewable energy, however, this is simply not supported by the facts. Energy and power companies do not have any incentive to transition to alternative energy sources as fossil fuels are more profitable. When nationalized, or municipalized (the local version of nationalization) energy companies would no longer be concerned with maximizing profits and would lose its incentive for retaining fossil fuels. This was the case in Hamburg, Germany, and many other towns and villages across the country. What this has allowed them to do is transition away from fossil fuels and pursue clean energy.The issue of opportunity vs. outcome is a complex philosophical issue that I would rather not engage in. By widdling it down to this dichotomy we over simplify the issue of equality. Equal opportunities may sound nice and they are a good thing, people should have the same opportunities as one another, however in our society in which there is mass inequality of income and disparities among race, class, gender, etc., equal opportunity is simply impossible. Equal opportunities cannot exist if there is an unequal distribution of resources. Effectively I do believe in equal opportunity, however until we overcome existing inequalities this is simply impossible.In his response to the Princeton Study I cited in my first round argument, the con misinterprets what the study actually says. The study found that the wealthy and special interests groups representing business owners exercise more influence over government policy than the majority of Americans. In other words, even if nearly every American was against something, that wouldn't have any impact on that policy being passed if it was supported by the wealthy and corporate interests. It does not say that larger entities have larger sway, in fact, it found the opposite was the case.The con also misunderstands what these corporate interests actually represent. These companies are not working to make policies which benefit their workers, they are working to make policies which help corporations maximize profits. The con cites the example of Walmart. However rather than lobbying for policies which benefit workers, such as increasing the minimum wage, paid maternity leave, and increased collective bargaining rights, Walmart has lobbied against laws which would implement these policies and has lobbied instead to reduce workers rights protections and corporate taxes. It also does not represent its consumers and works to lobby against consumer protection laws.The con then corrects his earlier statement, which I pointed out the internal contradiction of. He says that socialism benefits the government and not the people, however, this is simply illogical given that I do not advocate the state control of the economy.In his final paragraph the con contradicts an earlier statement by claiming that socialism is a system of equal outcome. He earlier went out of his way to ask for clarification of this issue, however as this is a complete contradiction of his earlier statement, and is nothing more than a strawman argument, it should be disregarded.http://cdi.coop...https://us.boell.org...https://www.theguardian.com...;