Democratic Socialism would be an improvement over Capitalism/Social Democracy

He has painted an elaborate picture of the democratic socialist system that he supports, and now I hope to do the same with the social democratic system I favor. Socialism at its core, is a economic system that favors an even distribution of wealth among those whose labors provide for the value of the product they produced. As my opponent said, there are three main types of socialism. The first is revolutionary communism which, in principle, is the system that the Soviet Union was created to be although it soon gave way to corruption, greed, and its eventual collapse. It essentially calls for the working class to rise up in revolution against the powerful and set up a system of socialism where there is collective ownership of all wealth and property and the public good supersedes the rights of the individual. Second is democratic socialism which I would argue is the purest for of socialism as it eliminates capitalism entirely while still ensuring that the voice of the society as a whole is listened to at all times. The third is social democracy which I will elaborate more on a little further on. On the other hand, you have pure capitalism that calls for a laissez faire governmental role in the economy and an economy that is driven by consumers and markets. Each of the extremes, unfettered capitalism and revolutionary communism has flaws. First, revolutionary communism is only achieved through violent uprisings that lead to instability and class warfare that have the effect of alienating instead of uniting the various classes. Also, a purely communist society is virtually impossible since greed is bound to emerge as it is simply human nature to seek self-betterment. Next, pure capitalism leads to the unfair exploitation of workers whose efforts essentially create the value of their products. In addition to this, it leads to the unfair distribution of income among workers and management. Finally, it is a very unstable system that leads to a cycle of periods of rampant growth followed by recessions and in more extreme cases depressions. Over time, all capitalist countries have moved slowly away from pure capitalism to a system where the government plays some role in regulating the economy. At the same time, a pure system of socialism, or in other words the democratic socialism that you are advocating, is not seen anywhere in the world at the time and has not been seen before. The reason for this is simple, both of these systems have clear benefits and clear problems. Capitalism as I explained earlier brings about far greater economic and productivity growth than in a socialist economy and is much more efficient and natural, but at the same time socialism socialism is far more stable and distributes income far more fairly than capitalism. Both of these systems have their flaws and benefits, which is why I believe Social Democracy is a good hybrid that includes portions of both these systems and is able to deliver the benefits of both in moderation and balance without any flaws as large as those in both socialism and capitalism. At its core, Social Democracy retains a capitalist economic system. However, the government regulates the economy in the form of minimum wage laws, financial oversight and regulation, consumer protection, pro-union laws, and environmental protection. These regulations strike a balance between business, the environment, consumers, and the workers to provide a free market system that does not harm the environment, is fair to consumers, pays workers fair wages, and still provides an opportunity for entrepreneurs and innovators to succeed and make a profit. In addition to this, the government creates social programs that ensure a basic standard of living for all people in the form of public health care, education, housing, pensions, unemployment benefits, and other programs that prevent anyone from going without the necessities of life. This not only creates a safety net that does not let anyone fall through the cracks, it often provides a boost so that all people have the ability to work hard, get a good education, and advance their standards of living and socio-economic status. The benefit of this system is that it combines the good things from both socialism and capitalism into one economic model where there is an opportunity to succeed and rise above but where no one can fall into poverty. It is a system where the workers receive fair pay but those who take risks and start their own businesses can strike a profit at the same time. It is a system where economic and productivity growth is much greater than in a planned economy but where the risk of financial crisis that comes with capitalism is minimal due to strong government regulation and oversight. There are still ups and downs but the ups are far more restrained and the downs far shorter and smaller than in a purely capitalist society. I will now leave it to my opponent to begin debating between the systems we have now laid out as well as the benefits of both.