Socialism isn't just trade unions and social welfare, it is a dogmatic ideology. Beliefs vary, but the relevant social democratic and democratic socialist parties of the world base their views on the works of Karl Marx and have similar policies, a continual push for ever more government control over the economy, nationalization, subsidies, taxation, heavy regulation, redistributive measures like DEI, inflationary spending, debt and money printing, far beyond the level impartial moderates would suggest. There are also a few authoritarian regimes left over from the cold war and related communists which have some level of state planning and state ownership of enterprises.

For much of the 20th century these groups prevented liberalization of the economy and still lambast it, even though the evidence is clear it led to very significant growth, not just in GDP but also standards of living, whereas the drawbacks like antiquated industries going out of business were minimal at best. China and India saw growth after liberalizing, whereas countries with dominant socialist parties like Venezuela and Bolivia suffer from shortages, lack of investment and massive corruption.

Their absolutism seems to be their biggest error, if say an ordinary working class fellow starts their own business they consider him an enemy, they associate him with the worst plutocrats simply because of his meager possessions. They seem unaware most actually want this freedom and it is often preferable to state ownership and control, which a cynic might assume was the real goal.