75 Ways Socialism Has Improved America

[Go Vols]

Socialism is taxpayer funds being used collectively to benefit society as a whole, despite income, contribution, or ability.

Sounds horrible, huh?

Well I hate to be the one to tell you, but Socialism, which you have been told to fear all your life, is responsible for all this...

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/03/29/1078852/-75-Ways-Socialism-Has-Improved-America

[underpants]

1. Oh Civilization only gets #75

Typical

[Go Vols]

3. I don't think they are in an order of importance.

Maybe they saved the best for last.

[upaloopa]

2. The socialism listed in the article is not the socialism

some people are afraid of.
What Americans are afraid of (real or not) is the taking away of the Protestant work ethic. The idea that you did it the hard way, you earned it now give it to someone else.
The idea that I pay taxes and you benefit rather than you earning it.
These thoughts will be there in 2016 when people vote.
They won't vote for someone who (in their way of seeing things) will raise their taxes to benefit someone who doesn't earn it the way they do.
It makes no friggin difference if they are wrong headed. They will not vote for something they are afraid of.

[Bernblu]

4. Yes, they wouldn't support public schools.

After all the kids are freeloaders!

If the public schools were not free today Hillary's neo-liberal third-way policy would be to make them free but have means testing and have the poor kids do community service to pay it back.

[Bread and Circus]

5. but yet Bernie has done very well electorally in his state...

Even drawing significant repub and indy votes.

[upaloopa]

8. He is not doing well nationally.

[AlbertCat]

14. He is not doing well nationally.

He will when people know who he is.


Just like the other candidate who beat Hillary in the primaries.

[smiley]

15. actually, he's doing well nationally

His polling continues to rise without the help of campaign funding from super-pacs and with the help of free advertising with social media.

If anyone is looking bad in this primary, it's Hillary. Her polling continues to drop and let's be honest, she's getting slaughtered in the media. The media on the other hand seems afraid of giving Sanders any air-time, positive or negative. Out of fear that people may actually hear his message. A message that continues to attract many disenfranchised voters from all political parties.

Of course this is only my observation from my world view. Go Bernie!

[AlbertCat]

17. The media on the other hand seems afraid of giving Sanders any air-time, positive or negative.

Tell me about it!

This AM on the AOL news feed....with a big picture of Hillary.... the headline reads:

CLINTON'S DEBATE SHOWING SPELLS BIG TROUBLE FOR RIVAL

Then the article goes on to talk about.... guess who.....


go on .... guess.


BIDEN!!!!!




(well, I guess it didn't show big trouble for Sanders then)

[in_cog_ni_to]

6. Ah, yes. That good old Republican ME! ME! ME!

It's all about me! I got mine - who gives a crap about you. I figured that's what all this Bernie "socialism" angst has been about. Greed. Zero empathy for your fellow citizens.

Anyone who listens to and hears what Bernie says, cannot take away from it what you just posted. He's been in Congress for 25 YEARS. Is the U.S. Congress going to allow a SOCIALIST to serve? Certainly NOT.

People now use the Internet - 87.4% of the population uses it and gets their information online. They know the REAL Bernie. A DEMOCRATIC SOCIALIST.

[Go Vols]

7. Going on that,wouldn't that mean that people

are sick of working hard just to give it away to corporate welfare like:

Take the example of Goodyear Tire. The company received a massive tax credit of $1.8 billion during 2014, despite reporting earnings before taxes of $687 million.That credit was a big reason why the company reported net income of $2.5 billion during the year.

Investors can enjoy tax benefits for years, Goodyear says. The company says it has enough tax credits that it estimates “paying no significant federal income tax” over the next five years.

http://americasmarkets.usatoday.com/2015/03/04/11-big-profitable-companies-pay-no-u-s-tax/

[DianeK]

9. you sound like a republican..

you didn't give any examples of what your idea of 'bad socialism' is as opposed to the 75 listed in the article ..but even people who find that they must rely on help from the state from time to time are allowed to drive our roads...so...thank god for socialism

[JDPriestly]

11. If our employment rate were as high as our government claims it is, people

might feel that way.

But the fact is a lot of people are un- or underemployed at this time, and they and their families are likely to disagree with the philosophy expressed in your post.

That worked 10 years ago and worked well 20 years ago, but that was before NAFTA and the WTO and trade with China lead to the closure of many of our industrial plants, technology lead to a lot of efficiency that cost jobs and many Americans lost the homes they were buying.

It's a new world.

The disparity in income is hitting the middle class, the people who used to make a livable wage from work, really hard.

We need to help each other out at this juncture, because most of the gains from the technology and trade are going to the very wealthiest corporations and people.

In a democracy, that trend will not proceed forever. It will end. The philosophy behind it will lose favor.

We have been here before. The Gilded Age was followed by the populist movement. That's the way history falls down and picks itself up.

Socialism has not damaged the Protestant Work Ethic in any country in which it ever existed -- like Northern Germany, or Scandinavia.

The work ethic is not specifically Protestant to begin with, and further countries that are organized in a more socialist way than we are also organize their workplaces better than we do. Germany and Austria good examples with their strong apprenticeship programs. Germany has a policy in which the large companies have employee representatives on their boards of directors. That is a great idea. For a long time, Germany was known as a country with few strikes.

In our country, labor and management are historically viewed as opposing parties. In more socialist countries (with the exception of the UK where class differences are very hard to overcome), the workplace is viewed as more cooperative.

In Germany, at least in the past, a person's freedom of speech was even protected against his/her employer. A person could voice opinions offensive to the employer and keep his/her job. That is not guaranteed here because our Bill of Rights applies to limit the government, not private parties.

Socialist countries are not full of lazy people.

Americans will learn about this in time.

[sabrina 1]

13. It is absolutely reprehensible that ANY person on the Left of the political spectrum would stoop

so low as to return to the McCarthy era to try to smear someone who has consistently fought for FDR policies.

No wonder it has failed to gain any traction. The Left was the target of McCarthyism. The RED CARD up to now, has been played only by Far Right left overs from that awful period in our history.

Maybe they forget that the RED CARD is still used against Obama and Hillary???

Just google Hillary and Socialist. Or Obama and Socialist.

Shame on anyone who claims to be a Democrat for persisting in the use of a meme that conjurs up one of the most vile periods in our history.

Not to mention it has failed so spectacularly due to the informed public of the 21st Century, especially the young, it makes you wonder 'who has infiltrated our party'??

[JDPriestly]

10. That's actually a short list.

NASA,
JPL, (Jet Propulsion Laboratory)
In Los Angeles, the Department of Water and Power
OSHA
EPA
Forestry Service
Subsidies for health care via the ACA (Obmacare) an programs like Medical an Medicaid

Grants for homeless services (all too limited).

My mother listed all the programs she had seen in her life.

Don't forget the Post Office.

Watch the rates of the private sector go up if the Republicans close the Post Office.

[Go Vols]

12. I think closing the Post Office

would be akin to busting the Air Traffic Controllers Union,and we all know how well that worked out.

[w0nderer]

16. K & R

as one of those people from a Social-Democrat country

It always confuses me how many Americans can't seem to distinguish between Socialdemocracy and socialtyranny

if it is socialism it must be the boogie man seems to be a common theme