The United States loves to spread the lie that the wealth of this country is honestly earned and evenly distributed subject to the laws of capitalism and individual human effort. While there is little doubt that there are plenty of successful people within America that are indeed upstanding, hard-working, and play by the rules in both a legal and moral sense, there are also a select few that are able to bend the rules to their ego and to their desire. In America, there most definitely are laws and rules that are setup to enhance the money elite and their power brokers and to serve their needs and their purposes. In the USA, in virtually any business activity, the field is not level; it favors some and thereby opposes others.
Quite frankly, the rich want to maintain or to increase both their money and their power, and those that have the political means to assist them in doing so will best maintain their own power and influence in providing these certain elite with that assistance, while those that can judge issues or issue rulings in the favor of these privileged elite will also benefit from their particular governance. The wisest thing to remember is that the rich and powerful will never willingly give up any of the material advantages that they have and will do everything to protect and to foster their continual profit at the expense of others. This is a zero sum society, in which there are winners and there are losers; winning gives you power, money, influence, and options; whereas losing at best builds character, and at worse destroys you and everything that you believe in.
The question then becomes why would the money elite favor their particular brand of socialism or socialism at all? This is a very valid question which has some equally pertinent answers. One does well to remember that the true money-elite are out-numbered by not just 99:1 but more like 999:1, or in all actuality, at an even higher ratio. In order to maintain their existence, let alone their power, they must have control over the law, politics, media, and force. Getting all of these things to work in the master's hands is not easily accomplished, unless you are able to offer to those that provide these things, lesser kingdoms that will satisfy them. For the law, you offer honors and certain judicial power, for politicians you offer fiefdoms and lackeys to serve them; for the media you allow them to provide and profit enormously from mindless entertainment of any sort as long as they also provide the appropriate propaganda; for the military/police you offer battles, killing machines, and respect. In all events, you make sure that these essential people are well taken care of and therefore have something of value worth protecting and fighting for.
Still that doesn't answer the question at hand in which the vast majority of Americans are neither the elite, nor the favored classes; it is for these people that socialism raises its ugly head. In any country, there is a vast amount of people who are not interested in working, in applying themselves, or in educating themselves and are all too happy to be complacent and relatively passive if given food, shelter, and entertainment, in return in which their only duty is to acquiesce. Because of the sheer numbers of these peoples it is desirable to disarm them, and for those that will not comply, to incarcerate them for having not done so. For the people that make up the engine that makes America run, the workers, whether blue-collar or white-collar, that are diligent in applying themselves to their duties each and every workday, for these workers you most tax them, nickel and dime them, frighten them, indoctrinate them, promise them, and sell them the political illusion of choice, in which no matter which lever they press, the result is, in effect, the same. Their purpose is to enrich the money-elite; in return they should be satisfied with their 'free' healthcare, 'free' schooling, 'free' military/police protection, and their 'free'dom.
The money elite cannot afford a free-for-all, they, above all things need both law and order that supports them and their status. This can best be done with a population which is distracted by wars, rumors of wars, secularism, or by entertainment that amuses them. The money elite favors giving the mass of humanity just enough of the American dream to make them believe that the dream that they have amassed is the dream, whereas in actuality it is a sham. The money elite cannot afford to be challenged and will not allow a challenge to their status and to their power, therefore the siren song of socialism is sung to the public to make them believe that there is only so much to go around, and it's fairer if we all share in it together, equally.