Ready To Join the American Socialist Revolution? Take Our Quiz and Find Out

Socialism used to be something we Americans picked up in our freshman dorm room and dropped right around the time HR walked us through the concept of a 401(k) match. Not so much anymore. New York has a democratic socialist mayor, Zohran Mamdani, and he is quite popular: Quinnipiac put his favorability at 60 percent among likely city voters in September. Membership of the Democratic Socialists of America passed 120,000 in July. The Trump administration owns a slice of Intel, a deal nobody at the White House seems eager to describe as the state seizing the means of production.

You, dear reader, might think you know where you land on the socialist-to-capitalist spectrum. At least, I thought I did (put me down as Reluctant Capitalist, please). But is it so simple? Plenty of people who would never sit through a DSA meeting get their electricity from a utility owned by their city. Is that socialism? If you live in a planned subdivision, your HOA probably has more say over the height of your fence than the typical commissar had over a Moscow balcony. Is that free-market capitalism?

The test that follows runs 20 questions, one point per yes. A few come straight from DSA’s 2026 platform, which proposes abolishing the Senate among its more constitutionally ambitious ideas. Others concern the worn tote bag in your hall closet. They count the same, so a confession about the kind of milk you put in your coffee can push you leftward as easily as your view on the Electoral College. Tally up and consult the scale at the end. Pencils are not provided by the state.

01| Would you take a 32-hour week if your pay stayed exactly the same?

DSA wants 32 hours at full pay. Federal overtime has generally kicked in after 40 hours since 1940. In a 2022 British pilot, 61 companies cut hours without cutting pay; 56 continued afterward and staff turnover fell 57 percent. The catch is that a hospital or a factory cannot simply close on Friday. A shorter week there means staggered shifts, more hiring, or both.

Starbucks charged extra for nondairy milk at its U.S. company-operated stores until November 2024. In 2020, Oatly accepted a $200 million investment led by Blackstone, alongside Oprah Winfrey, Jay-Z’s Roc Nation, Natalie Portman and the former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz. Oatly said big capital could help green businesses grow. It was a confusing moment for the proponents of ethical capitalism.

03| Have you ever waited 14 weeks for a library book rather than pay $16 for it?

Then you’ve discovered rationing with push notifications, and possibly the most socialist app on your phone. A public institution buys or licenses the book, lends it free and allocates scarce copies by queue rather than by price. Publishers license to libraries on tighter terms than they sell to you, which is why the queue is long. Public libraries logged 737.6 million digital checkouts through OverDrive in 2025, up 9 percent. Nobody pays at the checkout. Plenty pay in patience and accept the deal.

04| Have you ever worn a keffiyeh to Starbucks?

Then your outfit hit two campaigns at once. After Starbucks Workers United posted “Solidarity with Palestine!” in October 2023, the chain drew pro-Palestinian boycott calls and a trademark fight with the baristas’ own union. Separately, DSA says it will stay Starbucks-free until those baristas win a contract. The union counts more than 12,000 workers organized at nearly 700 stores, and still no contract.

05| Should health care be free at the point of use?

Say yes and you’ve signed up to one of DSA’s biggest pledges: universal health care at no cost to individuals. The U.S. spent $5.3 trillion in 2024, or $15,474 a person and 18 percent of GDP. Medicare and Medicaid already accounted for 39 percent of that, private insurance for 31. A yes moves much of the private side onto the public ledger, as socialized medicine has done elsewhere, with mixed results.

06| Do you own an anti-capitalist tote bag?

Then you probably own six. A 2011 study found a cotton bag needed 131 uses to beat a single-use plastic bag on climate impact; a 2018 study put it at 149. Either number takes years to reach. The greenest bag is almost always the one already hanging in your hall.

07| Should Washington own a piece of Intel to keep up with China?

DSA wants public ownership of the largest corporations and essential industries. The Trump administration reached a similar conclusion, sort of. In August 2025, Washington took about 9.9 percent of Intel in exchange for roughly $8.87 billion in federal disbursements, without board or governance rights. Call it strategic capitalism or venture socialism, depending on your preference.

08| Have you ever announced that you were leaving X...on X?

Pew followed 500 prominent news influencers. Bluesky membership rose from 21 percent before the 2024 election won by President Donald Trump to 43 percent by March 2025, but 82 percent still had an X account. Only 6 percent had Bluesky without X. Among left-leaning influencers, 69 percent joined Bluesky and three-quarters kept X. The farewell post turned out to be easier than saying farewell to Elon Musk forever.

09| Do you belong to an HOA?

Then you already belong to a private government. About 373,000 community associations housed 78.1 million Americans in 2025 and collected $124.2 billion in assessments. They can regulate paint, parking and landscaping. Unpaid assessments become liens and, depending on the state, foreclosure can follow. Choose the wrong shade of red at your peril, though the board is at least elected.

10| Have you ever gone to therapy to talk about capitalism?

Then the session is its own evidence. The American Psychological Association has repeatedly found money and the economy among the biggest stressors in American life. It has also found 38 percent of psychologists are now taking no insurance at all, and commercially insured patients are going out of network for mental health care about three-and-a-half times as often as for medical care. The hour in which you explain that the system is making you unwell runs $100 to $200, often in cash.

11| Should ICE be abolished?

DSA’s answer is yes, and then some: end detention and deportations, legalize migration and grant amnesty regardless of status. Washington is moving the other way. The 2025 budget law gave ICE about $75 billion through 2029, including $45 billion for detention. The average daily detained population rose 71 percent, to 67,204 by April 2026. Whatever happens to the agency next, it will likely not be abolition.

12| Would you trust City Hall with your electricity?

Check your bill, because public ownership may already be there. About 2,000 community-owned utilities serve more than 55 million Americans. Nearly 900 consumer-owned electric cooperatives serve 42 million more across 56 percent of the country. DSA would go much further, but the ownership model is hardly exotic. The real test is whether whoever owns the company can keep the lights on.

13| Should all public college be free, and existing student debt be canceled?

DSA wants public college free and every student loan canceled. Federal loans total $1.7 trillion across 42.6 million borrowers, and some 9 million of them, owing $220 billion, were in default by March. The Supreme Court struck down Biden’s narrower plan in 2023. Only 36.8 percent of Americans 25 and older held a bachelor’s degree or higher in 2024, which brings the question back to who pays?

14| Do you hate landlords but love your Airbnb?

New York City is the test case. Local Law 18 generally bars renting an entire apartment for under 30 days and requires hosts to register. The city says active registrations number about 3,000, against more than 38,000 listings on one platform in early 2023. A 2026 study found almost no effect on asking rents, while another estimated hotel rates rose $14 to $19 a night. Mamdani’s rent freeze on a million apartments took effect from October 1.

15| Do you support strikes when they inconvenience you?

Union solidarity is easiest when the train is running. Gallup found 71 percent of Americans approved of unions in 2026, while just 5.9 percent of private-sector workers belonged to one in 2025. The Taft-Hartley Act bars secondary boycotts and many states restrict public-worker strikes. DSA wants broader strike rights. Plenty of people say yes to all of it, right up until the school closes.

16| Would you shop at a government supermarket if the groceries were 30 percent cheaper?

Price is a powerful solvent of ideology. New York has allocated $70 million for five city-owned grocery stores, to be run day to day by private operators. City Hall says a core basket will be 30 percent cheaper than comparable private prices. They are expected to open by 2029. Less Soviet supermarket than municipal Costco, if it works.

17| Should billionaires face aggressive wealth taxes?

DSA wants aggressive wealth taxes. The 400 richest Americans were worth $8 trillion in 2026, up from $6.6 trillion a year earlier, according to Forbes. Musk alone accounted for $908 billion of that. Europe has tried this before: the OECD counted 12 countries with recurrent net wealth taxes in 1990 and just four by 2017, and Europe had far fewer billionaires to tax in the first place.

18| Should the United States abolish the Electoral College?

Twice since 2000 the loser of the popular vote has won the White House. DSA wants the Electoral College abolished, but the main workaround is not socialist at all. Under the National Popular Vote compact, states pledge their electors to the national winner once the signatories hold 270 between them. Virginia joined in April 2026, taking it to 19 jurisdictions and 222 votes, 48 short. Its own backers expect to be sued the day it gets there.

19| Have you ever supported a free bus by not paying for one that wasn’t free yet?

You were early. Free buses were Mamdani’s signature promise, but the mayor does not set the fare; the state-controlled MTA does. It estimated that 48.6 percent of local-bus riders did not pay in early 2026. Chair Janno Lieber says the talk of free buses has contributed to the evasion. Mamdani disagrees. Either way, the riders got there first.

This is the only question with a 114-year-old control group. The Socialist Party’s 1912 platform demanded a shorter workday, weekly rest, public works at union wages, minimum wages, old-age pensions and an end to child labor under 16. Several became recognizable parts of American law. It also wanted collective ownership of the railroads, utilities and banking, plus the abolition of the Senate, the presidential veto and judicial review. DSA wants the Senate abolished again. Debs’ party peaked at 113,000 members. DSA says it passed 120,000 in July.

YOUR LITTLE RED SCORE

TOTAL YES ANSWERS: ___/20

Now locate yourself on the entirely unscientific spectrum below:

“Capitalism is a system designed by the owning class to exploit the rest of us for their own profit,” according to the Democratic Socialists of America. “We must replace it with democratic socialism, a system where ordinary people have a real voice in our workplaces, neighborhoods, and society.”

That definition, unsurprisingly, does not find universal agreement in Washington. Newsweek asked Republican and Democratic lawmakers what socialism means to them. Their responses have been edited for length and clarity.

Democratic Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren: “What the American people are saying and Democratic candidates are saying all across the country is, give us a chance to put some curbs on this president, and we will start bringing down costs for the American people.”

Vice President JD Vance:

Republican South Dakota Senator Mike Rounds:

Democratic New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, during an appearance on Theo Von’s podcast:

Republican Florida Representative Jimmy Patronis, referring to Mamdani:

Natalie Baldassarre, press secretary for the Republican National Committee:

Democratic New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham:

Republican Florida Lieutenant Governor Jay Collins:

Olivia Wales, White House spokeswoman: