If all basic needs were met (food, shelter, and medical), could socialism work (without the need for wars or famine to reduce the population)?
If all basic needs were met (food, shelter, and medical), could socialism work (without the need for wars or famine to reduce the population)?
Yes. Birth rates in developed countries naturally drop without government intervention.
That being said, socialism is more than just basic needs being met - it’s a question of who owns what laborers produce. Under socialism, the idea is that the workers themselves own what they produce (or the fruits of their labor, more generally), as opposed to shareholders or firm owners.