Capitalism: I have a milk cow, and I’ll give you some of the milk if you shovel manure out of her stall for me.

Socialism: The government has cows that we take care of, and gives out their milk to everyone.

Communism: Our neighborhood has cows; they don’t really belong to anyone, but everyone takes care of them and we trust each other to make sure everyone is getting as much milk as they need.

Social Democracy: I have a milk cow; the government takes some of the milk every time I milk her and gives it to my neighbor, and gives me some of my neighbor’s wheat from every harvest.

Communism in practice: Our neighborhood has cows that are owned by the government, which we are told we’re all a part of; we’re given advice by experts on how to take care of them to produce the most milk, but no one ever seems to have enough except the local official’s children.