Well, for what it's worth democracy doesn't scale without force either. Somebody, i.e. the state, has a monopoly on violence, to protect our property. In any case, you're just talking about state based socialism, like marxism.

But there are other forms of socialism that do just fine and are alive today, like syndicalism. They work because they don't rely on a government to exist, correctly recognizing their power in industry.

The best years of America for the middle class were when there was a good balance between decent paying, unionized manufacturing jobs and the customers who chose to pay higher prices and get American products.