Why would any American want to be a socialist?

Recently, The CEO of United was dismissed for cause but was given a multi-million $ payoff. Regularly we read about CEO's that have driven their company down in value, not up, and get paid millions to go away. Will Muschamp is an example of a college football coach who failed to meet expectations and was given millions to go away, became the highest paid coordinator while still receiving compensation from previous employee. So far his defense at Auburn has been short of stellar. Major college football coaches are receiving huge salaries, but most fail to deliver on the goals for which they are hired.

Capitalists respond, "this is just the free market at work." I would be the first to advocate market based economies over socialist economies. SO, what is wrong with our current system that would leave room for an increasing attraction to socialism?

What exists in our society are leaders that get rewarded for success, but do not get penalized for failure. There is a huge asymmetry of risks. CEO's and coaches get bonuses if they reach or exceed goals, but they never have to give back any of their compensation when they fail to achieve goals. This actually makes the market dysfunctional, creating a cynicism in society of free market capitalism.

Professionals also learn to game the system, such as what AIG execs did with credit default swaps (insurance on mortgage back securities). In gaming the system professionals bet on the upside potential of their actions but are not subject to the downside risks of failure. Our government is not only ready to bail out financial execs, like Sweden and The Netherlands, the US govt stands ready to remove risk of failure for all its citizens in many ways. In fact the mantra of the federal govt has gradually moved from the founding fathers idea to defend society against foreign attack to protecting all citizens from various forms of risk (i.e., natural disasters, health care costs, social security, unemployment benefits, and so forth).

So why have so many grown weary of leaving society to the forces of the capitalists and free markets?
When greed trumps ethics and society pursues the role of government as removing risks from life, socialism is attractive. While many may be too sophisticated to say they want socialism, a culture of "everybody must win" and BIG GOVT is the new socialism.