"Government control of the means of production"

I believe that's pretty much a textbook description of "socialism" (although there are other aspects to socialism, the control exerted by the state is a central feature) (addendum: "Government control of the means of production is not socialism, it's state capitalism, not that dissimilar to how much of the Chinese economy functions today.  Socialism is those doing the labour controlling the means of production. " - hat tip to an anonymous reader)

Let's see what's happening in the news today...  Here's a report by Reuters:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump’s administration is considering invoking special powers through a law called the Defense Production Act to rapidly expand domestic manufacturing of protective masks and clothing to combat the coronavirus in the United States, two U.S. officials told Reuters. The use of the law, passed by Congress in 1950 at the outset of the Korean War, would mark an escalation of the administration’s response to the outbreak...

The law grants the president the power to expand industrial production of key materials or products for national security and other reasons. The biggest producers of face masks in the United States include 3M Corp and Honeywell International Inc...

A White House official confirmed that the administration was exploring the use of the law to spur manufacturing of protective gear. Both the DHS official and the White House requested anonymity to discuss the issue.

“Let’s say ‘Company A’ makes a multitude of respiratory masks but they spend 80% of their assembly lines on masks that painters wear and only 20% on the N95,” the White House official said. “We will have the ability to tell corporations, ‘No, you change your production line so it is now 80% of the N95 masks and 20% of the other.’” 

“It allows you to basically direct things happening that need to get done,” the official added. 

This is, of course, good socialism.   Not to be confused with bad socialism.  Via BoingBoing.