Why the scare of the so called SOCIALISM? Aren't we already living in a socialist society?

[El pond]

Spread the wealth = socialism???? OK so everybody pays taxes so some kids can go to school. We pay Social Security so the now retired can live a little better. If you earn a lot, you don't get grants for college, yet if others are not so fortunate they get even 10 grants. Isn't all this spread the wealth?? Why are there people scaring with the so called socialism term? If that's true, we are already socialists.

[Mike-O]

Because most americans are too ignorant and naive to see that there is a world that's changing around them.

[granny_sp]

We live in a capitalist society. The corps get away with crimes and don't even try to hide the wrong doing or even think what they are doing is shameful until they go to prison. I'm sure they have drawn straws as to who should go because I sure many more are guilty. Then on top of stealing from customers they beg for money from our government with no strings attached. If we turn socialist it will because these greedy bankrupting US

[Trout]

They are fear mongering because they have no intention of imposing true socialism -

They need to associate brutal regimes with socialisim because that is what they are planning - then they will tell you they can save you from it by adopting something you'd have fought against in the past --- but it will be better than the socialism you hate which was never socialisim in the first place

So people will go along with it and the rich people will have been proven right again - We really can tell them anything and they still believe us after thousands of years of abusing them - they still want to do what we tell them to .....

In the mean time other nations that have a truer sense of a socialistic nation will be hated by all the Americans without question and the idea of taking things away from billionaires will come to a complete stop -

The score now ? Peasants 0 Rich people 75

[justgoodfolk]

Indeed, it is just another line of BS to try to distract Americans from their real problems and make them vote against their own best interest.
Taxes are always a redistribituion of money as Colin Powell put it.
"Taxes are always a redistribution of money. Most of the taxes that are redistributed go back to those who pay them, in roads and airports and hospitals and schools. And taxes are necessary for the common good. And there's nothing wrong with examining what our tax structure is or who should be paying more or who should be paying less, and for us to say that makes you a socialist is an unfortunate characterization that isn't accurate. "
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAvyoxNuPUI
(starts at aprox 1:45)
Taxes are part of an agreement that voters make with government, a contract in which citizens agree to exchange their money for the government's goods and services. To consume these goods and services without paying for them is itself theft, and is rightly punished as breach of contract. Some may object that they have not agreed to the contract, but if so, then they must not consume the government's goods and services. Furthermore, contract by majority rule is better than by minority rule, one-person rule or anarchy (which results in kill-or-be-killed). Opponents of taxation under democracy are therefore challenged to find an improvement on democracy
http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/L-taxestheft.htm
No one truly makes 100 percent of his money by himself. Individuals depend on a wide array of government services to support the very free market in which they earn their money. Without these supports, there would be no free market in the first place.
http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/L-earnedmoney.htm
McCain on no occasion suggested to end the progressive income tax. What's more he defended that system throughout his career
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2JPbQOHE...re=related
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5huxFz...wD94322H80
All the campaign talk and media chatter about "socialism" obscures the most fundamental issue: Socialism is not merely a set of technical measures involving state intervention into the economy. All capitalist nations engage in this to one degree or another, depending on circumstances. State ownership does not in any sense define a society as socialist, when the state itself is an organ of class rule controlled by the financial aristocracy.
Socialism means the reorganization of economic life under the democratic control of the actual producers, the working people whose labor creates all wealth. It can come about only through the independent political mobilization of the working class, led by a revolutionary party, which establishes a new and far more democratic form of state, a workers' state, which exercises ownership and control over the means of production. Socialism cannot be engineered through backroom deals between Wall Street bankers and Washington politicians, or through the policies of any Democratic or Republican politician.
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/oct200...-o23.shtml

[andrew w]

No, we are not living in a socialist society.

Yes, this is panic-mongering by the right to equate socialism with Stalinism.

Yes - to a limited extent the government has made a few socialist concessions, but this is the very minimum it can get away with. Any concessions we have got, such as social security, have had to be won through the struggle of workers for better conditions. Under capitalism, these will be taken away from us unless we fight to keep them.

As long as there are extremely wealthy people, we don't have socialism.

As long as there is private schooling and healthcare, we don't have socialism.

As long as there is profit and exploitation, we don't have socialism.

As long as people work long hours for hardly any money and can't make ends meet, we don't have socialism.

As long as we are not in control of our own workplaces and they are not run to make a profit, but to provide a public service, we don't have socialism.

Socialism would give us back control over our lives. It would free up our time and energy, so that we were not profit-drones, but educated citizens who took part in running and planning society to meet the needs of all, not an elite few. Socialism would do away with bureaucracy and privilege.

At the moment both Dems and Republicans are parties of big business - funded by rich corporations for their own benefit. Neither stand up for ordinary people.

It may seem like there is no alternative at the moment, but capitalism is coming up against its own contradictions, for example that it does not pay us enough to buy back the products of our labour without getting into more and more debt. The result has been the credit crunch.

But socialism won't happen unless we fight for it, by joining a political party and getting involved.

[remoserjr107]

We Are still a long way from "Socialism"....!!