Capital is what allows you to obtain the means of production. Before capitalism, capital required a title of nobility. It is not the same as money… Capitalism is the system where capital is just money. Just money can buy the mine, can buy the land, can buy the tools for the factory, can employ the workers.

These are things that require authority under both feudalism and a Marxist-Leninist system

Socialism does not require skimming off the top. That’s obviously the opposite of what it aims to do

But going all in on central planning basically guarantees a system of skimming off the top.

There are other, better models for socialism. What if all companies became worker controlled, direct democracy style? What if the state controlled everything considered utilities, from food to healthcare to power and electricity to education, and you let capitalism compete in the background?

Communism is where the state withers away, because it’s not needed. Where we grow beyond needing rulers.

You’ll never get there by concentrating all the power and capital in the state. You could get there by using the state only as a check to make sure everything remains bottom up