Is socialism possible in the US?

damn scratchers, yer the coolest senior citizen i know!

 

No worries. I know age is sometimes used against a person. That wasn't my intention. I'm 34.

 

34? eh, i'm never taking you seriously again . . .



when i was 34, i was, well, i was a serious fucking mess

i know, how's that any different from now?

 

It depends what you mean by "serious fucking mess".

 

actually, these days i've been downgraded to harmless mess

 

To be fair, unless you want to get into our entire private lives...I think we should just judge each other on what we post.
Which I do. I presume you do too.

 

of course

sorry it's so difficult to keep me on-topic

[the east is red]

 

Never mind

 

Odon.
I'll pay you back, just as soon as I discover how to slice a penny into 10000 pieces, so I can give you a slice
Come and see me when I'm 80, ill give you a dollar. That should cover it.

By the way
I gave out a hundred resumes. got 2 interviews and didn't get it.
I'm a full time student now.

If you don't like me taking your taxes THEN GIVE ME A JOB YOURSELF, then instead of 1000nth of a penny every year, you can pay me 20 dollars an hour =)

 

enk, i'd send you a buck to help you out [i have two]

but i don't want to spend the postage

 

...it's ok enk I didn't read your initial post that well (probably a bit hungover/drunk...)
I have no problem with welfare.

 

oh, odon, nobody wants to talk about socialism in the u$

too much money for it, too little internationalism for it

plus, so many amerikans think we already have it

the little darlings would just die if the real thing came to pass . . .

 

I've noticed it doesn't seem to play well there. Well not in a reasonable way. It's either Fox News (commentators) or Jon Stewart...and seemingly not much in between.

 

If socialism means that we all work for the government and they pretend to pay us while we pretend to work, sure sign me up!

 

I have some serious problems with socialism. While I am farther to the right, economically, than most people, certainly most people on this site, I think a great majority of America is a little right of center, far enough to ensure that socialism never succeeds in America. I don't know if Obama is a socialist or not, and I don't like to put people in little boxes. I do know that he is way far to the left and that his policies could never be successful.

When the government takes more of our money than is necessary to perform the duties required of them with the intent to redistribute wealth under a socialist system, the first thing they do is take a huge chunk for themselves. Then they give some to their friends. Then they spent a huge amount on projects that the majority of the people don't want. When they are done with all that, they hardly have enough to spend on what they were supposed to spend our tax dollars on in the first place. Therefore you get underpaid teachers, cops and firemen.

I understand that socialists are trying to help out the little man, increase the standard of living of the poor and create equity for all. But the problem is YOU'RE DOING IT WRONG!! Socialism will never be possible in America, mainly because the government is too greedy and will take too much of the money.

I don't understand why everyone cries about the greedy rich, when the government is far more greedy. No rich person or corporation has ever done as much damage to me as the liberals in government have. Let's see, what is the worst thing that a rich corporation could do to someone, layoff an employee? Send their jobs overseas? Well, that's bad, but let's look at why the corporation has done that. The big business had to downsize because they are over-regulated and have trouble making a profit. They sent all those jobs overseas because they are overtaxed by the government, and they have to find ways to cut costs. The economy sucks, because the liberals created the subprime credit crisis and wrecked the real estate market, dragging everything else down with it. Fortunately, now they have lots of unemployment payments because they liberals gave them two years to find a new job, but for many, many thousands that means they will slack off and not aggressively pursue employment. And it's a good thing that these people have such long time on unemployment, even if it's not paid for, because the liberals have wrecked the economy, Obama has promised that he will fight to raise taxes in 2012 and no one is hiring. Lots of businesses are making money, and as the left says, they are hoarding it away. This is because there is no predictability, they know their taxes are going to go up, and they are worried about staying afloat, forget about expanding.

You can not punish the rich, and expect to get the results you want. Marijuana is illegal in most places, right? But most of us still find ways around the law in order to get our smoke. Don't you think the rich will find their way around the law when it comes to taxes and regulations. The best thing to do, is to make this work environment, in America, as attractive as possible for businesses by lowering taxes and regulations, and hope everyone plays by the rules. There are going to be criminals. If someone does not play by the rules, then you punish that person or corporation. Not the whole country.

 

i'll laugh at you today

but not after you people bring back the workhouses, the poorhouses, the company towns

i suppose you'll find a way to blame liberals, government, and whatever your other bogeymen might be for those too

 

And are you saying that because of the potential for excessive and wasteful government spending that we should not have government spending?
It costs money to inspect oil rigs and toxic waste dumps.
It costs money to pave roads and lock up violent offenders.
Most European countries have social services that we still dream of and they are paying less in taxes than we do to get them.
Most of us do not want to take away some means of rewarding bright hardworking people with good ideas.

I am simply asking for justice for people who work hard to provide for their families. If market forces do not provide a living wage, if college and tech schools (the great door toward upward mobility) is unaffordable, then we agree as a people that it is in our national interest to do some things together that capitalism cannot do on its own.

It would be naive to assume that every tax dollar is wisely spent. There's no substitute for vigilance on our part. We need a free media to be our watchdog. And by that I mean free from corporate and government bullying and censorship.

 

fawkes conveniently forgets that the reason government sucks is that government largely acts at the behest of the wealthy

we at the bottom are grateful for any crumbs we can get, but fully understand that if those crumbs were not mandated by law, the wealthy would keep them for themselves

or, as gardenguy implies, they'd poison them and then feed us . . .

 

I've got a bottom-feeding catfish that digs for his supper in the gravel of my fish tank. My catfish works twice as hard for his supper as the big fishes do. The big fishes up top try their best to eat every last morsel, so I have to make sure that some sinks past them. Unfortunately I am merely the president of my fish tank and my largess extends no further.

 

Watchout! ^^

@odon. no worries mate. I get what your saying.
I do need a job, I just like a system where if you lose your job it doesn't mean the streets for you.