"I think we need a balance between the system that wants to oppress workers to maximise profit, and the system which wants workers to control their own lives"
You clearly have a misconception of what socialism is. Socialism does not mean sit around and collect benefits from the government. It means that workers (yes, people who WORK) own the means of production, rather than the do-nothing capitalist class which makes money parasitically from simply owning things.
On a fundamental level, socialism encourages it. And you, you seem to have a misconception of what capitalism is and how money works.
Yes, the best and most effective way to make money is by owning things and hiring people, and letting them work for you. I own a business myself.
You call it 'parasite' and that can be true to an extent when it turns evil and only profit-driven.
If you choose to be a normal wage worker that doesn't own anything, then yeah, capitalism is probably not for you. You'll be stuck in an endless rat race and feel like a slave all your life.
My advice is to stop trading your time for money and start owning things that generate money for you.
That's why I think a healthy balance of both socialism and capitalism is optimal.
"My advice is simply to not be poor and become a member of the tiny owner class, like me, that practices wage slavery on the vast majority of the rest of society. 👍"
I have worked, and continue to work. I understand how my labor is exploited by the bourgeois class and I do not recieve the bulk of the Value I create. I suggest reading Wage Labor and Capital and Value, Price and Profit.
I am certainly not the absolute most competent worker who ever lived, but I am definitely far more competent than the parasites exploiting me without lifting a finger.