Usually when people talk about socialism now, they’re referring to a semi-planned economy. That’s how. They’re not talking about authoritarianism of the soviet-era (like forced collectivization which is very hard to get people on board with). Their intentions are generally around people being provided necessities through subsidization, not controlling people. Some government intervention is necessary to keep those with unnecessary wealth(power) at bay.

Literally as simple as necessities are nationalized: Healthcare, housing, food, education, that type of thing. (Ie. None of these should be profit-making institutions, along with prisons, but i can explain why in another comment if you’re curious.)

If you’d like, I can explain economically why the free market cannot allocate resources effectively for necessities like this, and therefore my reasoning behind nationalization.

We really shouldn’t be encouraging endless accumulation of wealth, because it slows down the velocity of money when people hoard it, and it becomes a burden on our economy, especially when the class divide gets as wide as it currently is.