General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsSocialism works.
Consider the following examples:
The USPS, the most efficient and cheapest service in the world.
The Armed Forces.
The Veterans Administration.
Publicly owned water departments.
The air traffic control system.
Police departments.
The Social Security Adminstration.
The FDA.
And so many more examples that could be listed.
Socialism works to provide these services because the profit motive is not there to distort pricing and wages.
kennetha
(3,666 posts)Socialism doesnt mean that some services are provided by the government. Socialism is about the means of production in toto being socially owned. The US Post Office may be socially owned but neither UPS nor Federal Express which competes with USPO on certain services are.
Nor does having a not for profit sector of the economy mean socialism. Most private universities are not for profit but they are not socially owned.
guillaumeb
(42,641 posts)I am not talking about socialism as the Russians and Chinese practiced it, where the Government literally ran everything.
There are degrees of socialism, just as there are degrees of market economies.
kennetha
(3,666 posts)You cant just use words any old way you want in complete ignorance of their historical, political, and theoretical meanings.
guillaumeb
(42,641 posts)https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/socialism
I have written here frequently about my preference for a social democratic state. So perhaps I should have referred to it that way. But to clarify, I am talking about a social democratic system, where many services are provided by the government.
But even in the US system, which some like to call a free market system, there is no free market.
IluvPitties
(3,181 posts)Words have meanings, and we should not be using them irresponsibly.
ck4829
(35,096 posts)SammyWinstonJack
(44,130 posts)Thyla
(791 posts)We know it isn't about health care but reds under the bed, fear of communists and all other things they don't understand.
Most nations with systems that can be described as democratic socialism, and there are plenty, consider it more responsible governance and the term socialism is rarely thrown around and when it is you get laughed at for being a paranoid dick with no grounding in reality.
Frankly the word itself needs to be dropped altogether in the debate and just leave it being uttered by the frothing nutters.
bdamomma
(63,974 posts)that may be of interest.
https://www.businessinsider.com/difference-between-socialist-and-democratic-socialist-2018-6
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2012/3/29/1078852/-75-Ways-Socialism-Has-Improved-America
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/07/opinion/trump-socialism-state-of-the-union.html?imp_id=224273764&action=click&module=trending&pgtype=Article®ion=Footer