God, all of these debates about the difference between socialism and communism. The most bottom of bottom lines is this.
Socialism is democratic/authoritarian government owning parts/the whole of the economy
Communism is a totalitarian government owning the whole economy

That's basically it, communism is simply the more extreme form of Communism and the only real difference is the extent by which the government interferes with the economy and private lives. In any case I can see a Communist Faction rising up easily. Most people forget that when communism rose in Russia there wasn't a very large amount of industrialization. As a matter of fact the primary reason Communism rose was due to a lack of industrialization in Russia in comparison to Germany which lead to staggering deaths in World War 1...Still most would argue without a industrialized middle/working class of some sort you can't have a communist rebellion, but that doesn't match up with China's revolution which was a peasent revolution.

This all said, the rise of a communist/socialist faction would have to be lead by an educated group of rebels who would cause revolts among the lower classes. It would best occur in a place like New Vegas. The residents are largely poor, the inequality is great, the Followers is already an empathic NGO that's produced a totalitarianist (Caeser). Honestly the slums of Vegas would be the best place for such a faction. Is it such a large gap of logic that a socailist member/s of the Follwers wouldn't try to improve the Followers mission through revolution or setting up of a government.

I was describing a pure socialist state- without capitalist anything. Something Marx would like- after all it's his beleif that capitalism naturally creates classes, which is what you're trying to avoid with socialism. The haves will try to have more, and leave less for the have-nots, until they're basically sweatshop workers. And this *did* happen in the US before people got the government to institute minimum wage laws and OSHA. The socialist state Marx sought was an even playing field- no class meant no warfare or human suffering (aside from murder/[censored]/etc.) Since corporations run off of a capitalist system, they need to go, and the Government would incorporate those jobs. And the government would pay you about the same as everyone else for your work (which, if we look at a country like the US, translates to at least $1 million per person per year, since something like 1% of the US population controls 90% of the wealth.)

What you described is basically most democratic captialist countries. Yes, social services are expanded, but YOU go to a corporation, YOU work up the corporate ladder, and YOU get to keep what YOU earn, even if it puts you into upper class. Not to mention clear upper/middle/lower class people. If that's socialism, then the US is a socialist country as well, even if we don't give free medical care to everyone (which is one of the few things we lack.)