He has stated that he is not a capitalist ("to the bone", to be exact). I would argue, though, that his views on what capitalism and socialism don't accurately reflect what they are. When describing socialism, he generally points to Scandanavian countries and the policies of FDR, which are both social democratic. Not socialist.
“To me, socialism doesn’t mean state ownership of everything, by any means, it means creating a nation, and a world, in which all human beings have a decent standard of living.” (Associated Press, November 1990)
“In terms of socialism, I think there is a lot to be learned from Scandinavia and from some of the work, very good work that people have done in Europe. In countries like Finland, Norway, Denmark, poverty has almost been eliminated. All people have health care as a right of citizenship. College education is available to all people, regardless of income, virtually free. I have been very aggressive in trying to move to sustainable energy. They have a lot of political participation, high voter turnouts. I think there is a lot to be learned from countries that have created more egalitarian societies than has the United States of America.” (Georgetown University, 2015)
He has also never advocated for workers completely seizing the means of production (the closest he has ever come to that is his support of co-operatives, such as his
Corporate Accountability and Democracy plan and
these bills that have some aspects that come close, but don't meet the criteria of socialism) or the abolishment of private property. His support for co-operatives is certainly socialist-y, but as I pointed out before, it isn't socialist.
Sources for the quotes:[\B]
YouTube (A speech he made praising FDR's policies)
14 things Bernie Sanders has said about socialism - POLITICO (Various quotes from Bernie Sanders about socialism)
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