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+--- Thread: What is a socialist? Why do some people accuse President Obama of being a socialist? (/thread-42052.html)
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What is a socialist? Why do some people accuse President Obama of being a socialist? - Mere Mortal - 11-18-2012 01:00 PM
Are interstates, the military, libraries, social security, TSA, air traffic controllers examples of socialism?
- noone - 11-18-2012 01:09 PM
Socialism has similarities to Communism.
- John H - 11-18-2012 01:09 PM
Obama wants government control of everything instead of the free market taking care of itself.
- Sarika Lewis - 11-18-2012 01:09 PM
Once again you leftists confuse infrastructure with socialism , a bridge is not welfare
- Jean - 11-18-2012 01:09 PM
socialism the opposite of communism ...
- RayHere - 11-18-2012 01:09 PM
The only thing you nailed was the military the rest are not good examples however the military is low pay hard work away from you families etc The reason the military worked out they decided to go volunteer man and women who really wanted to serve their country certainly not make a good living
- Jess - 11-18-2012 01:09 PM
A socialist is someone who wants everyone to have the same rights and opportunities. A socialist wants a society without classes (like rich or poor) and for everyone to be equals. They also want the means of production to be owned by the government. For example, they want the pharmacies to be owned by the government, so they can control how much the medication and products should cost (they have a monopoly) depending on the needs of the public.
Wikipedia have some good facts about the subject. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialism)
- William - 11-18-2012 01:09 PM
Their desperation knows no bounds.
- Hans olav Sletnes - 11-18-2012 01:09 PM
Socialism used to mean that the means of production would be in the hands of the workers (workers would run the factories). That's why Lenin dismantled Socialism when he dismantled the worker's councils.
Other than that I pretty much agree with the answer Jess gave. I would just add that a socialist society needs to have powerful (preferably democratic) unions through which workers can make demands on the state. Without organized labour you can't really have Socialism.
The countries that come closest to having this system are probably the Scandinavian countries, although they do have a significant private sector as well.
The word Socialism is used as a scare word because people have been propagandized into associating Socialism with the totalitarianism and brutality of the Soviet Union (and similar autocratic states), which of course had little to do with Socialism as described here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzvStfDHkG8
Edit: Those who think the USA has a free market economy should check out my answer to this question: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AqiJ8wHiQyuL5ZYOOCgqzITty6IX;_ylv=3?qid=20110123075004AAXPbOZ
- Twix Twix - 11-18-2012 01:09 PM
I am sorry, I thought the USA was already pretty much a socialist country in many ways. Don't all people pay into the same pot for things like fire services, police, ambulances, schools, road maintenance, welfare, Medicaid etc? The main thing that is missing from the whole socialist picture is universal health care.