The Romans had the first form of Socialism—bread and the games of the circuses. This kept the hungry mobs quiet and the hard working middle class taxpayers paid the taxes for the building of the roads and aqueducts etc. Did the ruling class pay any taxes? The more things change the more they stay the same. Socialism also keeps the lower class quiet while the working classes have to pay the taxes. The top people who make the laws can play around with them to their liking—example: the Clinton have a “foundation” which they use as their personal slush fund while only a small amount of their money goes to their charity. Socialism benefits the ruling class and the middle class gets stuck with the bill.
Possibly, socialism goes further back than that, to Rome’s model, Nimrod and his empire. Certainly he was the first post-diluvian cult of personality, and got the people organized into many vain construction projects culminating in things such as the Tower of Babel.