"Socialism = centralized, authority, monopoly money, no real competition and absolutely no self-regulating, open, free market economies"

Then you have no idea what they mean by socialism is as you clearly confuse it with communism. Currently in Western politics when they talk about socialism they mean social democracy.
Social democracy has nothing to do with communism.
1/3 of EU countries are social countries. For example Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Iceland, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, etc.
Social democracy is just an update to capitalism. It works excellent with monetary systems and it brings capitalism to more sustainable and humane level. It is simply an improvement to capitalism.