Saw this video this morning from a state rep in Virginia () It’s from a few months ago, but we need more of this type of messaging in our country, especially for people my age and younger. Socialism is a disaster and a morally bankrupt political philosophy. The fact that it has a significant approval rating, especially among the younger population, is one of the things that scares me the most about the future of our country.
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Those tendencies become lesser with the passing of the years. What looks good and idealistic at 20, gets looked at differently at 40 years of age.
I know that is generally true, but we shouldn’t rely on it or assume that the rise of positive feelings towards socialism in our country will just fade. I’m sure there were people in Venezuela and pre-French Revolution France who said something similar.
My you have a child who is misbehaving, it’s a tricky balance to finding the right mechanism in order to limit that child’s ability to act out. In this case, i believe isolationism and a rebranding of American values is necessary to right the ship.
That can go both ways. Brazil, Chile, and Portugal are warnings not to be too militant in protecting against socialism.
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What is the 'socialism' being discussed here? The meaning seems to change depending on who's speaking. Mostly I hear it being used as a reason not to vote for Biden because it will unleash the socialist hordes. They are never very specific about what that means in terms of policies, except of course raising taxes.
I recall Medicare was opposed as "socialism" by the AMA and conservatives but I don't know anyone who who dislikes it or thinks it's socialism now. So what is that crosses the line from where we are now socialism today?
I recall Medicare was opposed as "socialism" by the AMA and conservatives but I don't know anyone who who dislikes it or thinks it's socialism now. So what is that crosses the line from where we are now socialism today?
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The only example i can refer back to is the Bernie Sanders supporters. Bernie has some really social views on government. I personally wasn’t opposed to some of his ideas but I also understand that the amount of money needed essentially build parts of our system from the ground up is an enormous task that a person serving one, four year term is incapable of completing by themselves. I believe change will come within the next 10 years to our government system to make it benefit the people in productive ways. This will manifest itself in the form of affordable healthcare and insurance but we are still a long ways off from having the mentally as a country to make that happen.
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Government ownership of the means of production.
I don’t like Medicare. So now you can say you know one person. I’m not in favor of Ponzi schemes, whether they are corporate or governmental.
So that's it? One person who doesn't like Medicare and a Webster's definition that doesn't seem to apply to any major industry today.
Are there any specific actions that are on the horizon or is this a general concern like other people have about climate change?
I keep running into these concerns about socialism, mostly on the part of real estate and extractive industry guys, but they never seem to give me specifics, although they are very clear that increased taxes are on their minds. Tases aren't government ownership of the means of production.
Are there any specific actions that are on the horizon or is this a general concern like other people have about climate change?
I keep running into these concerns about socialism, mostly on the part of real estate and extractive industry guys, but they never seem to give me specifics, although they are very clear that increased taxes are on their minds. Tases aren't government ownership of the means of production.
Let me disabuse my younger friends. Medicare is not cheap. You have paid for it all along...but surprise, surprise, surprise... you still pay quite a bit for it upon retirement. They take some out from your retirement check. You want Part B, that will be extra, drugs are Part D and that is more yet. There is no family plan. If there are two of you then you pay all of those again. Oh, I almost forgot, everything goes up every year plus some depend on your age.
You mean your health insurance is like normal health insurance, but you actually get to use it?
That's understandable, considering geriatric care is more frequent and more complex than young people's care.
To compare, my employer's only offered insurance plan runs $2,252 / Month for Employee + Spouse on a $900 deductible. Luckily the employer pays a hefty portion of that, if I had no employer like a retiree, then I would be expected to pay it all. That's before Dental or Vision ($110 / Month) and it doesn't include anything for drugs. By comparison, $458 for part A, $144.60 for part B, and ~$30.50 for part D. Grand total, that's $633 per person on average and you get more benefits.
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In theory. There are some doctors that are highly successful that won't take Medicare. Not as many as was once feared.
As far as older people being sick more often and with more complex care, I had no idea!!!!
The Brand of socialism being pushed by Soros funded ANTIFA is Communism. Their progressive views do not reflect the views of any US party and would destroy the country and split it up into zones controlled by individuals. They recently called on followers to descend on DC starting in mid September on Social media to force Trump out of the White House. Normally I would ignore these messages but they now have a proven track record on delivering their promises and must be taken seriously. They also said if Trump wins, they will claim he is illegitimate and hold their own inauguration and force the military to chose a side. They claim California, Oregon, and Washington have already pledged to break away if Trump is re-elected. America has many flaws that need to be fixed but at the end of the day, I don’t support this brand of socialism bc i love my country and know endorsing this brand of socialism is embracing the destruction of America!
I have a little more faith in America holding together and rejecting splinter groups like this. I doubt they can even get one state together to follow them, much less several. They are the definition of a splinter group, one little splinter is not going to cause the thumb to implode.
Colour Revolutions are highly effective. Ask any Arab country! 9/11 was also a splinter group along with ISIS, FARC, IRA, PLA on and on. Don’t underestimate their power!
I don't really have a point. Rather I'm trying to understand why so many people I talk to are worried about "socialism" taking over the country. What specific dangers they see looming...beyond taxes going up?
IOW if "socialism is government ownership of the means of production", where is happening or likely to happen?
IOW if "socialism is government ownership of the means of production", where is happening or likely to happen?
How far has the democrat party drifted from JFK?
"Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country."
"Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country."
Looting doesn’t do it justice. They’ve cleaned out the Magnificent Mile. The city had to cancel bus and train service into the Loop and raise all the draw bridges to keep the throngs of people from coming downtown just to steal. America is at a tipping point.
I don't know about the tipping point, but the lack of coverage about the Chicago situation with major news networks is strange.
There isn't one story on CNN about Chicago right now. None on Reuters. On ABC you have to go to the very bottom of the web site and click on US news, to get a story on Chicago that doesn't even have Chicago in the headline.
The only major news networks covering it in the headlines are CBS and NBC.
Of course Fox covers it, but that is a given.
You are a little more optimistic than I am on how quickly real reform will come in health care. As I have said before, I am for socialistic health care, otherwise known as single payer. The rest of socialism is for the birds.
The only problem is that a large segment of the population will fight that with everything they have. That's why Obama tried to do it in stages, and did not go forward with a true single payer system. You saw what happened to that. One of the most important aspects of the first stage got struck down.(The penalty of not being a part of the health care system, and opting out.) And other items of that nature got deconstructed and eliminated as well. The stages thing didn't really go any better than a straight change would have gone. That failed a little bit slower, but it still failed. And it didn't take that much longer for it to fail.
You could say that today's youth aging ten years might help it along. But you can't count on that. Their views will change.
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It’s bigger than health care now. There’s a sizeable portion of the American public that now feels like the social compact does not be benefit them and that they are entitled to unlimited free stuff as fast as Congress can spend money.
How does the ability to force a sale of a company and take a slice of the sales price rate as a risk along side the concerns about socialism? Here's one analyst's view of the Tik Tok situation:
" You must sell your company to a competitor or we will close you down. Oh, and we will take a cut of the value of this enforced sale.
This has the hallmarks of a small corrupt government operating in some poorly developed country. Instead this is coercive action by the president of the United States using an executive order that bypasses the need for Congressional approval.
President Trump said TikTok will "close down" in the U.S. on September 15 unless a deal can be negotiated between TikTok, an appropriate company and the U.S. government.
But there is more danger in this, and it reflects a concerning moral vacuum.
Trump said: "I did say that if you buy it, whatever the price is that goes to whoever owns it, because I guess it's China essentially, I said a very substantial portion of that price is going to have to come into the Treasury of the United States because we're making it possible for this deal to happen."
This is more commonly described as a kickback and throws into serious question the moral and legal leadership of the United States. The world has become accustomed to President Trump's sabotaging of the global rules-based order with his destruction of the WTO, his unilateral rejection of UN-agreed arms treaties and arms control agreements, among other things.
But this takes things to a new level and poses a threat, not just to China, but to any company that dares challenge the U.S. competitors. This is nothing less than state-sponsored property theft built on charges that are trumped up (no pun intended). TikTok, like Huawei, poses a major competitive threat to business that American companies have missed out on."
" You must sell your company to a competitor or we will close you down. Oh, and we will take a cut of the value of this enforced sale.
This has the hallmarks of a small corrupt government operating in some poorly developed country. Instead this is coercive action by the president of the United States using an executive order that bypasses the need for Congressional approval.
President Trump said TikTok will "close down" in the U.S. on September 15 unless a deal can be negotiated between TikTok, an appropriate company and the U.S. government.
But there is more danger in this, and it reflects a concerning moral vacuum.
Trump said: "I did say that if you buy it, whatever the price is that goes to whoever owns it, because I guess it's China essentially, I said a very substantial portion of that price is going to have to come into the Treasury of the United States because we're making it possible for this deal to happen."
This is more commonly described as a kickback and throws into serious question the moral and legal leadership of the United States. The world has become accustomed to President Trump's sabotaging of the global rules-based order with his destruction of the WTO, his unilateral rejection of UN-agreed arms treaties and arms control agreements, among other things.
But this takes things to a new level and poses a threat, not just to China, but to any company that dares challenge the U.S. competitors. This is nothing less than state-sponsored property theft built on charges that are trumped up (no pun intended). TikTok, like Huawei, poses a major competitive threat to business that American companies have missed out on."
China has used Tik Tok to spy on US citizens. As a result of the Discovery, the Houston Embassy was closed. Eliminating all apps that give China the opportunity to spy on US citizens will be executed. How we choose to make China pay for their actions is a matter of tactics and debatable.
Forcing the sale and taking a cut of it is not the right way. As always, Trumps actions are suspect. and generally considered to be outside the law. Fines, an embargo on their product in the U.S., a tarriff for every $ earned in the US, those are the types of legal tactics that former Presidents have used. Trump just charges forward with whatever he feels the urge to do, regardless of advisers warnings, and consultations.
My guess is the talk of a forced sale is a negotiating ploy. Take a hard line in order to obtained the concessions we want. Suppose we will see but I would be surprised if this ever gets to a sale. A forced sale would be wrong fwiw.
It's also something Trump can't do. I luv it, when Trump demands something that isn't legal, and something he does not have the power to demand. It always leaves the opposition quaking in their boots.
It is such an effective scare tactic.(sarcasm - In case it wasn't as obvious as a 1200 lb Elvis, Man Monkey eating 16 supersized Bacon, Peanut Butter, banana, & white bread sandwiches, on Mayo.)
Good point, maybe just another episode in the Trump Show. Ratings are not high with a worldwide audience, but he is only playing for his % of a US base anyway. We can joke, but correcting his illegal moves wastes time, money, and is the opposite of progress. Meanwhile health care, the legendary North Korean deal, the China deal, Covid19, etc. all go unaddressed. It is what it is.
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