I find that most people talking about the "extremes" tend to not be able to define what, exactly, they find so terrible about the idea that the workers should be the primary beneficiaries of their work.

Because that's all left/right is. If you want to talk about the pitfalls of Marxist-themed authoritarianism I'm all ears but it isn't "extreme socialism" anymore than fascism or an absolute monarchy is "extreme capitalism."

And, just for the record, the wealth gap is growing faster in Scandinavia than America. The ruling classes might deign to take care of the most vulnerable but the model doesn't actually solve the underlying problems, it just treats the most severe symptoms.

Which is better than nothing, I'll take a ruling class that believes in noblesse oblige over one that does not, but the cancer remains. The system funnels wealth to the owner class, it can not do anything else without breaking.

Europe also benefits from literally trillions of dollars a year in net wealth extracted from the global south.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S095937802200005X