What's so bad about socialism and why do Americans hate it so much?

Question

I don't get the whole negative view on socialism. yes, everything in extreme is bad but socialism doesn't have to be extreme! look england for example. it has socialism and guess what! they have free health care!! yes, their economy sucks but America is TRILLIONS in debt! Plus capitalism kind of sucks too. I mean we are being brainwashed by commercials and big billion dollar company giants. plus people are being evicted from their homes. I mean, I get that you don't want the government demanding money from you, but if it means less homeless people and a kind shared wealth, what's the problem? I don't get what the whole fuss is about. I think Americans are getting communism and socialism confused.
Also, I am not for socialism or anything. I understand that every type of economy and government system has its flaws, including socialism and including american capitalism so don't go ranting about me being for dictators or whatever. im not. im just asking a simple question.

Answer 1

Yes, it works.



Nowrway has the best Human Development Index of the world. Norway is a democratic socialism. All Norwegian citizen has free health care and free education. The quality is better than in USA.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwegian_Labour_Party

http://arbeiderpartiet.no/Kontakt/Information-in-English





According to World Health Organization/UN:



Life expectancy rate in Cuba is better than in USA.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_life_expectancy



Child mortality rate in Cuba is lower than in USA.



illiteracy

Cuba – 0%

USA – 5% (about 15 million)



Violence/homicide rate:

USA rate is higher than the Chinese rate.

* China is the most populous country in the world.





People living with HIV (AIDS). See the map:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:People_living_with_HIV_AIDS_world_map.PNG





Social classes in USA:

The rich – only 5%

About 40 – 45% is middle class

About 40 – 45% is working class

About 12 – 14% is living under poverty line. It is 33 million!



Source:

BEEGHLEY, Leonard. (2004). The Structure of Social Stratification in the United States. Boston, MA





Why Americans hate socialism so much?

It was the capitalist propaganda (press, movies, etc... even cartoons).

Americans don't even know what marxism/socialism/comunism really is.



Who controls the press? The richiest men of USA. Less than 5% of American population.

Who controls economy? Just 5% of Americans (shareholders in Wall Street).

Who make them richer? 95% of American population.



While you work all day long to buy a hot dog (2 dollars), a shareholers is having a glass of wine (3.000 dollars) without working.

Answer 2

Yes, lets look at England, which until a few years ago also had "free" college education, until they realized they couldn't afford it anymore and had to start charging tuition... and now that they need to raise tuition rates, they've got riots in the streets out the wazoo to the point where Prince Charles's car was attacked and he and his girlfriend were threatened with being beheaded. We had riots in France over pensions, riots in Greece over something similar, Iceland's economy pretty much totally collapsed, and now Spain and Portugal are about to face their own upheavals too. Socialism is too expensive to be sustained no matter where its tried, unless you keep people in a very low standard of living akin to Cuba, North Korea or Venezuela.



And unfortunately, "American Capitalism" isn't actually capitalism, not since 1913 anyway when an entity (Federal Reserve) was given the state-enforced monopoly over setting interest rates. Now the socialistic programs of Medicare & Medicaid, Social Security, and our global military empire and foreign wars, will be the death of our economy and currency as well. We just can't afford it, but people get dependent and addicted to free things and like in Europe, will riot in the streets if any politician dares cut or eliminate those programs... and now we've got Obamacare on top of all that, putting us on the path to eventual single-payer. When the system that has become such a popular source of dependency collapses, everyone will be left with nothing and no alternatives, and is far worse than accepting a steady amount of those in the population without those things.

Answer 3

Socialism is great for selling dummies a free lunch. You say they get "free health care"?? Do the doctors work for free in England? Where does the money come from to pay for it? And what are the social and economic consequences of that?



Socialism is always accompanied by government intrusion of rights and freedoms. Take a look at England, there are cameras everywhere surveilling the people, they've had their right to bear arms stripped away and the government monitors everything they do. They have to even register their chickens and cows with the government. The next step will be confiscation of those too. IMO England is an example of a country ready for a violent rebellion....oh but they can't because they've been disarmed!

Answer 4

Actually, your question isn't that simple. Please look up the EU. They are royally screwed. Their health care is NOT free. Nothing is free. And socialism dictates that everyone is equal--equally miserable. Though there will always be the greedy people, understand that this greed does NOT go away with a mandate that everyone be equal. You have the ambitious who will still want to achieve more but don't because there will no longer be a point in doing so, and the greedy and power hungry will always find a way to exploit it. Understand that even though it is an economic system--someone has to enforce it. That would be the government. And do you think they will ever live by the same conditions they mandate we do? No.



*and for those that claim others just "don't know what it is", please indulge us. But do so in a way that demonstrates you know what it is. A definition is merely a cut and paste job. Put your obnoxiousness to the test and prove it to us. If you can't.....I suggest you crawl back in the basement you came from and head to your blog.

Answer 5

the reason america is trillions in debt is because in '88 reagan cut the top tax rate for the rich from 70% to a max of 36% . this was a trillion a year less in the treasury . in '02 bush gave an additional trillion dollars a year break to the rich . the first time in american history a president cut taxes in wartime . the GOP have become enablers of the zionist agenda of greed of wall street , corporations , and the bankers . 3% ( about 10 million people ) own over 90% of all wealth in america .

wealth does not disappear it just changes hands . as most people are struggling financially now , their wealth is flowing to that 3% richest . that 3% have become pathological accumulators . think of 10 million gordon gecko's all consumed by greed , always wanting MORE . they even want to cut taxes more by cutting social programs like social security and medicare . so what if YOUR granma starves to death , they want that money in their pocket .

Answer 6

From what I can make out, federal taxes in the USA are something the employee pays. Here in the UK, they are deducted straight out of your pay packet by your employer, so you never consciously see the 20% or whatever of your wages going to the state, it's just a line on your payslip.



The American media and political debate doesn't know what either socialism or liberalism are. To be fair, the British media doesn't know what liberalism is either - despite it rather than socialism being what gave us the NHS, pensions, education system, our battered-by-Labour-and-Tories but still better than USA welfare system, Keynesian economics and so forth.



The USA could do with a good dose of what most of its media think of as socialism, and we think of as moderate social-liberalism. Though in the USA, to be deemed a socialist you just have to believe in walking round the homeless rather than treading on them.

Answer 7

Sharing wealth is for free loaders and liberals always assume that everyone wants to help out homeless people or lazy drug addicts. Britain's economy is crap, enough said. America's economy is crap because of British-like policies.



Pure Capitalism>>>>>>>>Socialism



and lol at people who talk about being brainwashed. It's called think for yourself, and that has nothing to do with Capitalism. Communists and Socialists brainwash people as well you could say.

Answer 8

What's bad about socialism is that no matter one's ability, no matter one's intelligence, no matter one's job, a doctor or a janitor, someone is expected to accept getting the same level of pay. This isn't realistic because it takes a lot more smarts and ability, to further my analogy, to be a doctor than a janitor, and a person expects to be rewarded for his/her effort. People are equal of course, but they aren't all alike, and they judge their worth partly based on what they can do.

Answer 9

It sounds like you have very little understanding of what capitalism and socialism are, or what their histories are. I suggest you do some research before making such outlandish claims about them.

Answer 10

The fact that Americans even think that Britain (or "Europe"!!!) is socialist is some indication of how little understanding they have of what the term means. The fact that Americans think state-funded health care is a hallmark of socialism indicates the extent to which they have been misinformed by right-wing media outlets and political pundits.

Answer 11

We tried it and it failed, as it has in China, Russia ,Cuba and various European countries

http://www.lewrockwell.com/hornberger/hornberger153.html

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Answer 12

Americans dislike socialism because they are TOLD TO by the republicans.

They have no frikkin clue what it is.

Answer 13

It doesn't work.

It never has worked.

It never will work.