From the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) website
Democratic socialists believe that both the economy and society should be run democratically—to meet public needs, not to make profits for a few.
Ignoring the fact that pure democracies have never worked throughout history, a well thought out explanation of how this would work would be helpful. Does this mean that for every decision needing to be made, everyone in society has to stop what they are doing for a vote on the decision. Obviously not, nothing would ever get done. Someone would be empowered to make decisions to a certain level. So, who identifies the individual able to make decisions and on the level of decisions that can be made?
The other part of the statement that bothers me is that the economy would be geared to "meet public needs". To "need" something can be very subjective. Do my wife and I actually "need" a second vehicle when we could manage without one only making life more difficult for us. Do we as individuals actually "need" different brands of items to choose from or even different styles of clothing. Within the last few years, my local Kroger built a new store across the road from the old one and expanded to carry clothing and have an expanded deli section. It's a great store but as a result, the food section is smaller and the selection of different brands on most items has been reduced with some items being reduced to only one brand. As someone that enjoys cooking, I know that some brands of seemingly mundane ingredients have subtle taste differences resulting in one brand being preferred over another. As far as clothing, why couldn't we get by all dressed the same? Give us all a uniform and our "needs" have been met. A great deal of our economy and subsequently our way of life is based on our "wants" versus our "needs".
Part of running the economy democratically is ownership of the company is to be among those affected by the company, the workers and consumers. This is referred to as social ownership. Again from the DSA website:
Social ownership could take many forms, such as worker-owned cooperatives or publicly owned enterprises managed by workers and consumer representatives.
Democratic Socialists are not encouraging the development of new "worker-owned cooperatives" to compete with existing companies but the conversion of existing companies. The reference to "publicly owned enterprises" refers to companies that have been nationalized, taken over by the government. While Democratic Socialists claim not to want "an all-powerful government bureaucracy", they do admit that some industries will will be run by the state (government in this case).
While the large concentrations of capital in industries such as energy and steel may necessitate some form of state ownership, many consumer-goods industries might be best run as cooperatives.
So it would be helpful to me for Democratic Socialists to explain how they intend to make the transition of companies currently being owned by individuals to companies either being owned by the "state" or workers. Are the people with current ownership compensated for relinquishing ownership or are the companies simply confiscated from the current owners? Very few of the companies in the energy and steel industries are owned by individuals but have ownership spread over thousands of individuals and investment companies through the stock market.
Part of the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution indicates that we cannot "be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation". Under our Constitution the current owners of these companies would have to be compensated.
An explanation from the Democratic Socialists of how the transition would work is needed. Do the current owners get compensated for relinquishing ownership of companies or does the Fifth Amendment go on the trash heap. If the Fifth Amendment gets eliminated, how long before the rest of the Bill of Rights comes into conflict with the Democratic Socialist's dreams of utopia?