Professor Machan,

I like your question for Bernie, and I hope someone asks him.  It is a question that points up what the key difference between Marxism (or any form of totalitarianism) and Capitalism.  Capitalism lets people choose, none of the other systems do.

For along time I saw the defining character of socialsim being the public ownership of the means of production.  But now I think of that more as communism, where the government owns everything - totally.  Socialism and fascism are a bit different.  I am more inclined to see the defining character of socialism as the centralized control by an elite.  If the government can tell me, in great detail, what I can or cannot do with the things I 'own' then do I really own them?  I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts on that.
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ps. 1883 was the year Marx died.  The Communist Manifesto was published in 1848.