Americans are pretty much taught all their lives that Capitalism is inherently good, and Communism is inherently bad. Socialism tends to be hunched in with Communism. Is Socialism that bad, though? Is it a governmental system or a policy? This gets mushy.
I see socialism more as a policy - the government takes care of the people, rather than the people taking care of the government (like in Capitalism). I like this a lot better than Capitalism - we all can take care of eachother (Like Canada) rather than being all on our own. Yes, Canada has a higher unemployment rate - but you can bet those unemployed people get enough money to live on until they get another job. My father went through a struggle with unemployment - he barely had enough to feed himself, let alone the child support and bills on top of it.
What if the world's governments modeled their Governmental Policy like Canada's? Where profits are capped, healthcare is universal, and you can actually get help with paying for college? Sure, taxes would be higher, but there would be less people starving to death, less people going to bed without dinner, less people going through life uneducated because of some capitalist government that tells them that their parents make enough to put them through college - and to me, that sound a hell of a lot better than our current American system. Americanization, to me, has had a big negative effect on the world as a whole - people care more about themselves than the rest of their fellow man - we all work for eachother, but yet could care less if the other was dead or alive.
What do the fellow progressivists think? Too communist, or just un-American enough?
...Didn't I just say that people didn't have to be entirely equal? Damn, read my posts...
I'm not talking total equality - just to where you won't die of starvation if you're willing to contribute to society, or are unable to do so. I'm not saying everybody should have Government issued games and computers - I'm simply saying we should have a government that takes responsibility for it's people.
I don't support communism - what you speak of is communism.
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If a society is willing to give freedom for temporary security, they deserve neither.
Exactly how many people, in this country, have died of starvation in the last year? Fact of the matter is that there are all kinds of opportunities out there for folks who are willing to look beyond that government check.
True, and then there are people stuck in conditions with no way out but crime - what about those people?
Oh, and I can't exactly get an accurate starvation rate - being that most of those that starve are un-named and die without recognition of their death.
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If a society is willing to give freedom for temporary security, they deserve neither.
Riiiiiiigggghhht.
And I suppose your name is Jean Valjean? This is 21st century U.S. we're talking about.
*looks up Jean Valjean*
...
Did your post have any point at all?
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If a society is willing to give freedom for temporary security, they deserve neither.
Communism is good in theory but people can not really live that way.
You were taught that capitalism is good and communism is bad? What school did you go to or when did you go to school?
It took me years (only last year actually) before I realised that capitalism was a good system. I'd been spoonfed that welfare state shit for all my life by liberals who don't realize that deep down people don't want to work. All my life, I've been taught that social darwinism (a misnomer, by the way. The idea was actually formed by Herbert Spencer a few years before Charles Darwin ever wrote Origin of the Species) was evil and that a government has a moral obligation to make sure that all of its citizens live long lives with money to survive.
Universal Healthcare means people end up visiting emergency rooms for minor illnesses. Profit caps mean that people will stop working so hard once they reach their profit ceiling, because it's not like there's benefit for doing better.
Not everyone needs a college education. In fact, it's good when a fair share of people don't have a college education because then we have blue collar workers and "unskilled labor" (also a misnomer). America has gotten too obsessed with higher education already. There are far too many overqualified people in this country. Not everyone should go to college. In fact, some of our best presidents never went to college.
There's also nothing wrong with letting people die. America is closing in on overpopulation as it is. There's no reason (save pseudo-religious reasons) to keep the entire population alive. If the government is a vehicle of the people, and the people can't sustain themselves, then the government will surely lose its sustainence.
--Mike
Though you could cushion it for the poor socialist.