~by Colleen O’Brien
Fear of socialism in the U.S. is widespread; most of that fear generates from capitalism-only individuals. They fire up fear of Democrats and other liberal folks for leaning toward socialism because they’re afraid the dreaded S is going to eat them up and spit out their million-billion-trillion-dollar gains.
That sounds more like what capitalism does to the rest of us who realize no gain. I’m not saying I dislike capitalism, I simply dislike a few capitalists.
In the U.S., socialism is practiced widely for public infrastructure – the road in front of your house, national freeways, small and giant bridges – and social systems such as public schools, fire departments, police stations, Social Security and Medicare.
This country without socialism – people paying taxes for the general good of all – would have us paving the street in front of our home or leaving them dirt trails; we’d be winging it to teach our children algebra and chemistry or we’d be paying big sums for private schools to do so; we’d be organizing and paying vigilante groups to curtail robbers and other evil doers; we’d be saving our own home if it caught on fire; we’d either have to build our own swimming pool or swim in the river.
What I’m saying is that many socialistic ways are good and have worked for us for decades, centuries. Together with regulated capitalism, like socialism, is a political way to run a country. Combining the two -isms is what works. Either one of them alone and dominant is unfair to the general good.
Pure socialism is when the government owns and controls everything – manufacturing, politics, commerce, transportation and so on — as opposed to private ownership. The goal of pure socialism is to share the wealth to the point of getting rid of social classes by producing goods and services based on human need rather than private profit.
Pure capitalists fear and loathe that idea. It is not nor has ever been a plan of Democrats.
The American system is a combination of both ideologies. The Right wing goes for more capitalism; the Left for more socialism. There are millions of us in between the radicals of both political parties who would like an even-steven distribution of wealth and social justice to be the way of life for rich and poor and in between.
That we haven’t figured out how to balance the two is the reason our elected government employees are at odds with one another to the point of doing absolutely nothing to help anybody but themselves and their oligarchical paymasters. Why we continue to pay them at all is unfair, don’t you think?
Social democracy promotes social justice. When we have social justice, we benefit because it’s fair. When social justice is fooled with and demoted by powerful capitalists, the middle class and lower-income classes suffer. When the middle class suffers, the country suffers.
Our American democracy has been working on this dilemma for 250 years. The economy swaying back and forth according to whoever gets elected makes all of us nuts. The fight involves those who believe that capitalism must win versus those who know that a big dose of socialism must fit in with the business of pulling oneself up by one’s own bootstraps; in other words, if you can’t do it yourself, too bad, I’m not paying for your schooling, your roads, your fire department, your cops or your swimming pool.
After World War II, the U.S. hung onto the robust capitalist industries that powered winning the war and at the same time expanded socialistic behaviors like regulation of those private industries, fair income distribution through an equitable tax system and improving a system for those who needed the help of equal rights to education, medical care, employment and retirement.
The U.S. economy thrives under the help of Democratic administrations.* This includes growth of jobs, manufacturing and small businesses. Republican administrations cut taxes for the wealthy; Democrats invest in supporting the middle class, which helps the whole boatload of us.
And, history keeps track: of the 11 recessions in the modern era [since WWII], 10 of them began under Republican presidents.
Over the past seven presidents – Trump, Biden, Obama, Bush, Clinton, Bush, Reagan – job growth came to 50 million because of the three Ds and 17 million under the four Rs. It added up to16.2 million additional jobs during Biden, and minus 2.7 million jobs by the end of Trump’s first administration [the first president in the modern era to be boss of a net job loss].*
I’m tired of this administration lying about what was inherited from the Biden and Obama administrations as well as what they say they’ve done and haven’t. Both Biden and Obama were successful to the people and the country in general.
It is true that the more times you tell a lie, the more it is believed, and those perpetually lyin’ folks have it down pat, to the point of knowing that we will weary out because lying is physically and mentally wearying for the lied to.
We better get a Democratic admin. pretty soon or we’ll all become liars . . . lying down forever because we’re just so tired.
