I'm still trying to find my way in the world of -isms, but one big misconception (out in the real word, probably not on this subreddit) about socialism is that it is necessarily statist and authoritarian.

I love the idea of small government and markets, but I also loathe the undemocratic structure of most workplaces and am aware of the inequality of power between employer and employee. It is a serious problem with capitalism that the percentage of the population that functions as employers rarely goes above 5% (according to Marxist economist Richard Wolff), and that so many in the lower classes drift like nomads from job to job, never developing a vested interest in the business that employs them while so many in the upper classes take their generated surplus and autonomy without having having had to actually work in the store at that level.

Can I be a socialist that wants to change this about our economy's structure, but still enjoy (regulated) markets and aim for reducing the size of the government as much as possible? It seems that I can.