Socialism will never take over America
Posted by Slick 11 years, 5 months ago to Government
The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings;
The inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries. - Sir Winston Churchill
The inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries. - Sir Winston Churchill
The article is actually pretty good -- though I only skimmed so YMMV. There's a lot to like in there.
But if we say "it's already here", then we are going to have a LOT of people say, "well, it's not that bad! Maybe we can get MORE socialism and it will be even BETTER!"
And that is a very bad scenario.
Obamacare is definitely a hot topic issue but at its core, it is meant to protect those people who would otherwise be treated as slaves by big business.
I will be hypocritical here, but I say it because its important: we need optimism. There is no reason to assume the worst and prepare to "Galt" out when things are a little rough. We need reform to bring us out of the current economic stagnation and then in times of prosperity, we can regain capitalism, where ALL people are equal.
Winston Churchill, arguably one of the best leaders our world has ever seen, recognized the inherent inequities in capitalism. The question should not be: Why are we approaching socialism? Because socialism is simply a term with so many different definitions and connotations. We should avoid all terminology in these cases because we no longer have solid definitions of any of them. Rather than getting caught up in semantics, we should be wondering: How can we make all people equal so that our hard work is the only measure of success?
My point is, terminology means nothing. Rather than hearing the word "socialist" and running for the hills, we should consider the ideas that are encompassed with these policies.
If you had read what I wrote, I said that we need to make necessary reform to pull "us out of the current economic stagnation", which means we would be abandoning certain capitalistic policies. Once we are prosperous again, we can go back to total capitalism.
On a side note, responding to something you don't understand as "stupid" is certainly not appropriate; you should ask questions or disagree with your own detailed argument.
Think about the children of single, teen moms. There was no CHOICE to be born into that situation. This child, innocent at birth, conceived as a mistake, is subjected to poverty. Perhaps this child does not get to go to school because her family needs her to work. As a child, does she have the CHOICE to not go to school? No, she's a kid.
I agree that there is a large portion of the population that don't work hard enough to succeed, but what about the people who work hard and can't catch a break? They exist.
The US prides itself on social mobility, but its very difficult to move classes sometimes. Its wrong and close-minded to assume all that have failed have not tried. That being said, not all people are destined to be the greatest and ability plays a role. However, there are still people disenfranchised by things out of their control. Those people, who you so kindly refer to as the '51%', should not be lumped together because they are not always sharing the same attitude.
Racism and sexism exist and penetrate the work place. Women and minorities are given less opportunity and less respect in certain fields, discouraging their success. How do we call that equal opportunity?
We can say we have equal opportunity when there are equal pays. Women are just as capable as men and in some cases, more capable. Mrs. Rand is a symbol of that. Yet, women are not equal yet.
That's what I mean by equal opportunity. Not the political bullshit of the 51%.
As a female, let me tell you, I am MORE than capable of doing things a man can do. I am studying engineering at a college where I am constantly judged by my male peers; they often question my place there. And I still outperform them because I work hard. When I leave the academic field, I will be forced into a sexist field. Here are some statistics for you:
http://www.iwpr.org/publications/pubs/th...
http://jobs.aol.com/articles/2011/01/28/...
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/cutt...
And yes, the child who is uneducated should buck up. Unfortunately, they are not even taught what 'bucking-up' is or how to get any resources to do so.
I am not suggesting that people should mooch off of other people because I would never want that done to me. I am saying that people need to stop calling things 'equal opportunity' when they are not.
I agree that there will always be people out there with their hands out for a freebie. But its wrong to assume that all people that are poor put themselves there.
As I've said before. Don't thank me for things you can do now. I didn't do it for you.
It's equal opportunity not a guarantee of equal success.
As to your last article, written by a college professor who's wife is a college professor-what do you think the chances are these people think conservatively or base their conjectures on reason over emotion? Women tend to be the schoolmarms of pc behavior and so it follows that in a workplace environment women will get admonished for behavior that a group of men are far more accepting of. People, instead of cowering behind statistics and claiming fait au complet on on not getting ahead for this or that reason only females are subjected to bug me. Plenty of courageous females who perform well in their jobs/careers move ahead. They are resourceful and often work just as hard once they get home with their family, and they do not whine about opportunities are kept from them-they go out and get what they want. I know, because that's what I have done
And...who's responsible for teaching their kids to "buck up"... it all goes right back to responsibility. If one does not learn to posses it then they won't have it, but don't think it's okay to feed off of what I've made with mine. OR try to make me feel guilty because others have chosen to not take chances or be responsible for their own lack of initiative. Sometimes these motivation decisions, throughout history, were based on necessity and survival and that part of the equation has been removed thanks to entitlements and hand outs. So this "why bother" attitude is rampant and contagious. People, adults in particular, are exactly where they are in life because of the decisions they have made that got them there...that is not 'wrong' to assume. We are all where we are because of our decisions no matter how our lives began.
In reality, people differ greatly in ability, and therefore while hard work and success may be correlated to some extent, you could never realistically expect a one-to-one relationship between the two.
For instance, I am currently a student at Columbia University. My hard work and performance were factors in my acceptance, however, there are other students out there that match my abilities that are overlooked. There are people from impoverished areas, where school work is pushed aside for a job to cover the rent, etc. This is what I meant when I said I wanted people to be equal - I meant that people are given different opportunities based on their upbringing, families, location, etc. It isn't the person's fault, it is based on factors out of their control.
I agree with you, people different greatly by ability, but it is unfair to disenfranchise certain people based on things out of their control. If people were given equal opportunity, it would be easier to relate hard work to success, therefore giving us a better measure of who are the true moochers and producers.