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Socialism is an institutionalized system for the equitable distribution of wealth in a society. In its pure form, it's an excellent idea--the debits and credits against the national wealth balance out, everyone is taken care of, and even those who pay more than they get are satisfied and fulfilled with the national success that their work forwards.
Unfortunately, the real world has some factors that add friction to the wheels of perfect Socialism. First, the institutional nature of it requires significant bureaucracy. That bureaucracy costs the system without feeding it. Second, human greed is a huge drain on this system. Any system that has as its goal the complete even distribution of resources is probably doomed to fail, given human nature.
Third and probably most importantly, Socialism is an idealistic system. When forced to compete with Capitalism--which I'd call "pragmatic" so I don't have to use the phrase "greed-driven"--it simply can't compete.
In terms of actual political life, Socialism is a dinosaur. Nobody actually believes it can work anymore--even the so-called socialized nations have huge capitalist infrastructures. These days it's mainly a scare tactic from conservatives to prevent things like national health care from being considered.
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