The ownership of the means of production by the state is the single Marxist economic policy that modern "progressives*" do not formally ascribe to, and when I challenge people to name one economic policy matter on which a "progressive" would disagree with a Marxist, it's the one exception I make.

Other than that, I have yet to find a single economic principle, and damn few political ones for that matter, where modern "progressives" disagree with Marxists.

On the other hand, "progressives" do advocate massive controls over the means of production at almost every possible level, so I'm not sure what the difference is from ownership when it comes right down to it.

If you own a car, but your next door neighbor can tell you where to buy your gas, where to get tires, what seat covers you can have, what color the car should be, how fast you can drive, how many passengers can ride with you, what hours you can drive, and where you can park, does it really matter which of you has the pink slip?

A capitalist economy requires the largess of government institutions to guarantee the security, community infrastructure, and money system it requires to exist and run efficiently. Just imagine attempting to own private property if there were no public system to formally and legally document one's ownership. Imagine how well Boeing would do if there were no publically operated international airports. What kind of secure investment would one risk if we had no national defense?

Unless you ascribe to the anarchic form of libertarianism (I don't), the proper function of government is basically national defense and the police and courts. I have never said that these functions were either unnecessary, or not the proper venue of a government and objective laws, and many libertarians would agree with me. This provides the structure and contract enforcement that protects the individual from initiated force and fraud. You'd be astonished how little of our current government spending at all levels is dedicated to these basic functions.

The fact that you can't wrap your mind around the simple idea of a privately-owned airport shows the paradigm problem I have to deal with.

For a more detailed treatment, I recommend Ayn Rand's "The Nature of Government"

*socialists are "progressives" now. They change their names as often as someone who passes bad checks for a living, and for much the same reason.