We were talking at work today about how Obama taking away tax breaks for the rich was ridiculous and my boss called him a "dirty socialist." I think its great that Obama is taxing the rich in accordance to their income like the rest of us... This sparked a question for me...what is socialism to you? What do you think is good and bad about socialism?
Thats the idea that you believe in but a lot of other people would just sit along for the ride and not have the same amount of motivation to accomplish everything that they want to. This is an extremely broad and vague statement, but the truth is that a good amount of people (in the u.s., if not the world) are highly influenced by monetary gain.
the word has so many connotations among conservatives....and sometimes, it does for me when i see 'my tax dollars at work'...but, i can go pretty much along with the wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialism the issues i have with 'socialism' as a broad umbrella to run a society involve 'the tragedy of the commons'. this explains the concept well: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_commons i apply this to economic resources, rather than just agrarian ones. if one looks at their country's budget deficit, one can see where the 'shared economic resources' are used in ill fashion. frankly, i sometimes wonder if governments are not the problem with socialism and the irksome tang it leaves for many people. governments have all the self restraint with 'money' as a teenage girl with daddy's high limit credit card. there is a limit, somewhere...some countries have found that out...some people never get it. this is what always bothers me with discussions of socialism....there is only so far resources will go before the string breaks....
www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/meast/03/26/syria.unrest/index.html?eref=mrss_igoogle_cnn Death to Socialism!! Syria was at one point Communist. Was it at the needed Christian for So?
I think Socialism is a good idea because if you've noticed, some socialistic countries are a lot better off than America is.
That is, I think, the capitalist backfire. There is only a certain level of capable growth. We have been living in centuries where we have been way way way below the climatic end of growth. Think of it as if you have a box and you keep putting things in it, soon the box is full. That isn't the best metaphor, think of a mosquito sucking blood; soon it's sack is full. Socialism is unliked by capitalism because it 'caps'. lmao, it puts a cap on the individual's ability to attain; where as in a capitalist system it is just a free for all, do what you want and keep draining until there is nothing left. Socialism is almost a synonym for regulation in this respect; it regulates the economy and each individual person effect on it and the environment which we feed from. We are reaching a point, with capitalist systems, that we are passing where we should stop 'growing' (advancing society, draining). The way the United States is dipping in and out of recession is completely opposite to the way The Soviet Union fell (and their debt is 140 times larger then The Soviet Union's when it fell)...
There are different levels and different forms. I dunno, I live in Canada and I have been treated for Cancer twice; with OHIP (Ontario Health) the most expensive part of the treatment was parking.
Granted, it still makes a lot of our doctors run away for more money elsewhere; in private systems. Still... different mentality then mine.
Personally, I believe that the United States went the wrong way by selling back the investments that it had to collect at the beginning of the recession... because that was giving that 'responsibility' back to the individual corporations... I personally believe that it is coming to a time where the governments need to act like a corporations themselves, cause if we don't we're all going to crash (wait until the chinese are living like Americans and Canadians), socialize that way slowly like a capitalist conglomeration itself; but the government. Then it is like a lullaby to the population where things don't really seem to change day to day culturally and everything to the normal person just goes on as it would, or decline slowly (we can't all live like Americans and Canadians), it just cuts out the higher classes (the owners who have ALL your money [the rich class could probably pay the US debt out of their bank accounts]). Yet a positive slower nationalization; nationalization to quick socialization causes taxes to sky-rocket; just give them some more money to make them smile and a boot and run it, regulated, from the government; as to opposed to a sudden nationalized takeover... we've seen where that goes... What I mean by this is that if the Government can make PROFIT then it can socialize, and the best way for the Government to make profit is to nationalize... yet to do it without changing culture is to do it much slower. If the Government competes in a capitalist system as it's own on a mission to nationalize by buying up instead of a full takeover then hopefully it can create enough profit to fund socialized reforms without a raise in taxes. Selling off/back those investments was the dumbest thing they could ever do after a recession; every economic analyst here keeps saying their going to dip back in again come next year. When there is an election and everyone is too busy putting money in their favourite candidate's pockets.... like last time... We cap party funding here.
My question is why do we have to be so "Progressive"? I mean all we really have to do in life is: Live - Die and the dash represents everything else in between...which isn't much... Eat, Breathe, Poop, Pee, Sleep, Move around... But in the same breathe I do enjoy being intelligent and having a lot of options in life... A thing I struggle with everyday...To have a lot or enjoying the little things...To which I love both...
Merely taxing the rich isn't socialism. Socialism is the complete abolition of class hierarchies altogether, not a bourgeois government simply taxing the upper class to pay for social safety netting.
