Not by a hair of my chiny chin chin....

[Watchman]

And seeing as how social security etc. state-subvented services to the down-and-out are more or less institutionalised charity...

Socialism is not really about helping the poor. It's about increasing the power of the state.

If you're talking about the moderate-reformist type (which is the succesful branch most "first world" states have practised succesfully for quite a while; the radical-revolutionary version... didn't really work out), it's actually more or less about rescuing capitalism from itself by sanding down the nasty sharp bits that shred people.
The hardcore revolutionary types rather loathed the reformers for that, because they were quite effectively defusing the uprising of the oppressed proletariat long before it even started...
"Splitters!"