Socialism is really about taking things away from people that aren't theirs. Some state intervention is necessary for a functioning state, and I like things like a national health system and a welfare state, which were inventions of the Liberals in this country, not Labour. Labour took the credit. But I am mostly for minimal regulation and low taxation.
Bold mine.
Outside of a society, possessions are merely territory or things that you are able to make, take or claim and then defend. Think of a “beach master” elephant seal, with his tract of sand and his harem of females, defending what is “his” with nothing more than 3 or 4 tonnes of fat and muscle. There's no elephant seal 911 he can call and say "hey, some big fat bastard just lumbered onto my beach and shagged one of my sheilas".
Many mammals and birds claim, mark, patrol and protect a section of territory. There is no natural “right” to that land, that territory. Only what they are strong enough to claim and protect.
Humans, on the other hand, cooperate and form societies and within those societies we recognize that people have various rights including property rights. We even have police forces and judicial systems and armed forces to defend the defined rights of people within a society. The institutions that we have in place to protect things like property rights come at a cost, and society as a whole pays that cost. And society
chooses to respect your right to accumulate property and $$$$.
This is the social contract in action. Your imagined property rights and financial rights only exist within the structure of society. Without society, it’s the law of the jungle. And in return for what the social contract gives you, you give something back so that everyone who agrees to be part of a society and abide by the laws of society shares some of the benefits of that society.
What the political centre, under the guise of neoliberalism, has been doing for the past few decades is gradually dismantling the “giving something back” side of the social contract. It’s dog eat dog trying to survive if you are not one of the privileged. But they get to keep what they like about the social contract, the institutions that protect their wealth and privilege.
That shit won’t last forever.