I was thinking about this earlier today. 2 years ago, I was pretty much broke. But, I changed my lifestyle and reduced my consumption. I found things I could do for free.
Now that I make 50k/year, I still do the free stuff, but I now keep my apartment at 50 degrees in the winter. I save around 30% of my paycheck, and only buy needed items.*
Socialism won't work in America because people are different and belong to different cultures. There isn't outright racism anymore, but about half of the people from each race have some negative stereotype about the others. They can't come out and say hispanic workers shouldn't make $5.15/hour for farm or hotel work, but they can try and prevent the minimum wage from going up or eliminate it outright. They can't say we need to cut back welfare because poor inner city black people are collecting it and selling stuff on the black market which they don't report to the IRS. That white guy is fat and lazy and likes beer and nascar.
The government should provide some help if needed, but it should do more to encourage people to be productive and protect the little people from the large corporations that can decide that producing a product in China is cheaper (no EPA regs, lax labor laws), so you don't have a job anymore.
(*This past week I bought something that I really don't need, but wanted for a long time. It is a 37" HDTV with 1080p resolution so I can use it as a computer monitor.
)