During Donald Trump’s State of the Union speech, many of the old, white, Republican Senators and Representatives must have gotten more exercise than in weeks, jumping to their feet to applaud almost every sentence of the endless rhetoric.
One of the moments that got the loudest applause was Trump’s attempt to blame progressive Democrats for the problems of the current Venezuelan government, proclaiming the U.S. “will never be a socialist country” to a loud standing ovation from Republicans (and too many Democrats) and chants of “USA, USA, USA.”
Like so much of Trump’s speech, the statement was false. I have news for the Donald: The United States—like every other country with an advanced economy, such as the U.K., Germany, France, and Japan—is already a partly socialist country, with a mixed economy and many government programs that serve the public good.
By this defintion, Social Security is a “socialist” program: it’s a government-run pension system that cuts out private money managers. Medicare – a single-payer, government-run health insurance program for those over 65 – is too. Medicare-For-All would simply extend this to the rest of the population.
The minimum wage, maximum hour, and child labor laws that go back over a century are likewise “socialist” programs, in that the government intervenes in the capitalist market to require employers to meet minimum standards that might not be met in a pure, unregulated “free” market. Agricultural and energy subsidies are likewise socialist programs. I could go on and on.
Stripped of the Red-baiting and name-calling, the real debate isn’t between capitalism vs. socialism, but about the appropriate balance between the two.
Conservatives want to reduce Social Security and Medicare benefits and reduce the numbers who qualify, while progressives want to increase and expand these programs. Many progressives want to move towards a Medicare system covering all Americans, not just those over 65 (“Medicare for All”) while centrist Democrats want to protect the ACA which is a hybrid between private insurance and government insurance and regulation, and conservatives want to go back to the all-private system which pre-dated the ACA.
The government already supports higher education (that’s socialism) but progressives want to make a public college education free or debt-free. Conservatives support government subsidies for agriculture and the oil energy (that’s socialism) while many progressives believe this is “reverse welfare” for the rich and want to reduce them.
Under the headline, “Most Young Americans Prefer Socialism to Capitalism” CNBC reported on a Gallup poll this summer showing that millennials are more favorable to the socialist side than the capitalist side of the equation. with 51% having a positive view of socialism and only 47% having a positive view of capitalism.
That’s why the election to Congress of New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other young progressives – many of them women, who dressed in dramatic white at the State of the Union, which spoke louder than Trump’s words – represents a generational political and cultural change that will likely transform the country.
Unlike their parents and grandparents, these young progressives were children, or not yet born, when the Red-baiting of the Cold War made socialism a dirty word.
Trump’s false proclamation that America “will never be a socialist country” was an attempt to resurrect the McCarthyite red-baiting of his childhood in order to put his thumb on the capitalist side of the scale favored by the oligarchs in the ongoing debate over how much socialism and how much socialism America should have.
With a rising generation viewing greater socialism sympathetically, in the long-run this is a losing strategy. AOC and her colleagues–not Donald Trump and old, white Republican politicians–represent the future.
What a great article! I have tried explaining this same topic to hardcore Trump followers. Big surprise, they refused to hear or consider the facts that socialist programs were quite popular in the U.S. In fact, they are being used by most of his followers.
We are no where near a socialistic country even though tjose programs exist….thanks to a central banking system and the corporate oligarchy….dont get it twisted…no where near…and these types of programs are offered by all govts including Libya before Hillary and Obama got to them…
Unless the means of production is owned and controlled by the proletariat its not socialism. Public Services in Capitalist countries (like America) are Capitalist, its a form of PUBLIC GOOD, they are not socialist. The idea that “because the government implements something its socialist” totally ignores basically everything about Socio Economics, Marxist theory, socialism etc etc.
Lets take this “logic and apply it to snow plowing for example. The government plows the snow in winter so it must be socialist right? Well no
The government taxes tax dollars and than uses that money to pay a private company to plow the snow. The Government does not own the means of production (company) nor does it control the labour. This is an example of Public Good as everyone benefits from snow cleared roads. Its also an example of Capitalism as a private business is profiting from this service, taxes being used to pay for it are essentially a user fee of sorts and public good means everyone gets to benefit from those roads. In Socialism there is no private business or profit (hence their planned economy, price controls, monopolization of everything and quota system) .
There is also no such thing as “mixed economy” because Capitalism and Socialism are not compatible with each other, America has regulator Capitalism and Public Good as do all first world economies. Your myopic understanding of how Socialism essentially works would have Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels rolling in their blood soaked graves. Your insistence on bringing up age and race into this also shows your lack of emotional and educational maturity.
People who conflate Public Good aka Social Programs with Socialism have a collective IQ of 70. Just because the word “social” is in it doesn’t make expenditures or government programs in Capitalist countries “socialist”. I could call them “national services” would it make them “nationalist’? Unless the Means of Production is on the Proletariat its not Socialist at all, this is literally the only need required for something to be considered Socialist, if it is not met than its not Socialist, understand how Marxist theory works.
Lets take Snow Plowing in America for example.
The government collects taxes (user fee of sorts) and uses that money (capital) to purchase a service (exchange) from a Privately Owned business.
The Government does not
a) Own the Snow Plows
b) Build the Snow Plows
c) Maintain the Snow plows
d) Control the labour that drives the snow plows
Therefore snow plowing is not Socialist. What it is is PUBLIC GOOD. Essentially tax dollars are pooled collectively and are used to pay private businesses for a service that benefits everyone but the means and labour are privately controlled and profit exists so it cannot be socialist.
The End
What you state is UNFORTUNATELY true….
As a 1%er and capitalist, I state BAH-HUMBUG.
I will only use the programs to which I have (forced to) paid into over the years. Had I been given to “opt-out,” I would have gladly!!!!
I like to ask when they are giving up their Medicare and social security.
People should learn more about this whole argument. It is our country and more important our children and grandchildren’s country. We need to decide by facts not hysteria about what is in the best interest of the majority os people. We also need facts about countries that have social democracies and how those people are doing. If we only hear from the super rich and their lap dogs we will never get a true picture.
Rob’s comments above show just how stupid and uneducated people are. Our schools and teacher have failed people like Rob and it shows. MORON!
My city owns the plows, no private company, same with parks. What of public schools?
@Rob
So what is your problem than thinking Medicare for all would make this country “Socialist”?
Take your Snow Plowing example and compare to any social program we have in place here.
Example Medicare for all Americans.
The government does not:
A) Own the Hospitals.
B) Educate the Doctors.
C) Maintain any equipment in the Hospitals.
D) Control the labour that’s used in the Hospitals.
Therefore, Medicare for all is just “A public good” as you call it.
So what is your problem? Is it just the bad word “Social”?
For your benefits I call it then, we need the right balance out of Capitalism and Public goods. It’s the same but if it makes you feel better, Good.
To the author of this article: Great job.
I guess the people & corporations who don’t want to pay their taxes for our roads and infrastructure or medical cures, or the United States military that keep us safe from our enemies. Most of us depend on Social Security to live our out our later years. Medicare too has improved many lives of retired & disabled Americans. Public education has enormous benefits for employers and ourselves. I want to see if every individual can lay their own water lines, or fight off our enemies or educate their own children, that employers also need depend on too one day. I wonder where you would go without any roads or bridges. All civilized societies have socially funded programs. All it amounts to, is pooled resources paid for in a community effort to ensure the necessities that a community including all us citizens including ourselves all rely on to live a safe prosperous lives as citizens, that any a advanced society would depend on for our survival as a nation.
@Rob — I don’t know what your nation is – I’m guessing England or Canada — but certainly here in the US, at least in my state: The government DOES OWN THE SNOWPLOW, MAINTAIN THE SNOWPLOW and OPERATE THE SNOWPLOW. So, that little example is both ludicrous and wrong. Your understanding of Marxist Socialism fails to take into account the fact that Socialism PREDATED Marx by many years as an idea and was simply incorporated into his philosophy. What we practice with programs like Social Security IS IN FACT a form of Socialism and was decried as exactly that by the conservatives of FDR’s day. (he was also openly called a class traitor) https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2009/sep/22/barack-obama/obama-roosevelt-socialist-communist/. Soviet style Socialism was and is a disaster, but Social Democracy and Democratic Socialism of various sorts work very well for nearly all of our allies, and offer happier populations and apparently longer lives than our particular form of Capitalism. It’s all in the numbers. Try dealing with them rather than trying to lie to anyone who reads your comment.
Regards.
Oh, and to Ebenezer Smith – I strongly recommend an article by one of your fellow Plutocrats. He is right you know, or do you plan on committing a genocide? If you do, do you REALLY think all the other billionaires will just go along, or do you plan to kill them to? https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/06/the-pitchforks-are-coming-for-us-plutocrats-108014
Didn’t the government take over the steel industry during WWII?
Why does the government have to assist people to buy homes? (Fannie Mae).
The whole idea of “creating the middle class” was a socialist concept.
The military industrial complex is basically a huuuuge government program!
Never wrestle with a pig. You both get dirty, and the pig enjoys it.
The snow plowing is a poor example if you are trying to say it isn’t an example of socialism. Snow removal is not done by private 3rd parties on state, and local roads. Yes, it is paid for out of your taxes, however, these are government workers. Employed by the Municipality, County, or State in which they live.
We’ve been a socialist country starting with TR/FDR and the continuation of adding on layers of more and more government, through out the decades. Politicians have to promise more government to get elected/relected.
As has already been (accurately) stated, …..”you can’t have a government this big that controls this much and not be a socialist country….”, it’s a contradiction terms to say otherwise. It’s like saying 2+2 = 56 and equals 4 at the same time.
We just don’t us the actual word “socialist” in our nation’s title. We are superficial people, if we just don’t use the word, somehow we think we are something different that what we claim.
Alicia …I can’t stop laughing at your “pig” saying! It’s great!!
I’d like to see how long it’ll take to be seen by a doctor or the quality of health care to decrease due to over worked doctors and lack overtime pay if everyone had equal healthcare. The best part about capitalism is incentive to work harder, but nobody wants to do that anymore.
You couldn’t be more wrong –
“Republicans support subsidies for agriculture and the oil energy (that’s socialism)”. This is intentionally misleading. A socialist government would dictate what and how much these farmers grow/raise.
It may not be pure capitalism but it’s definitely not socialism.
Socialist economics involves centralized planning of the economy (contrary to free market capitalism). We are socialist for several reasons: first, we are a war economy and thus demand centralized planning; second, we are an indebted economy (private and public) far exceeding the means to service it and thus are driven by debt–not capital. Coupled these characteristics with the close relationship (alliance) between government and corporations and perhaps it is fascism–which is described as the capitalism of socialist economies.
so is bernie a socialist…or someone advocating doing “PUBLIC GOOD” ?Also i wonder about police and fire…sociallism or public good. And finally the military whose primary purpose today is to secure the oil and poppy fields.
Call it socialism or public good we need more of it. Education, including higher Education, should be a “public good”. The thought of the intellect of a brilliant young person going to waste because of being poor while a mediocre rich person goes to Harvard and gets “gentleman’ Cs makes me wonder if the mental resources ought to be wasted because the “nature of our Economy” makes Education a hand-out.
I have been questioning the “socialist” thing here in the US. Its a “fear” tactic by the Right, and “Fear” works! I fully agree that many of our federal government, state and local publicly funded programs all describe both socialism and “Public Good.” This was a good conversation and educational forme!
I heard a panelist recently advocating for, instead of paying for higher education, it would be more fruitful to put money toward free preschool. The payback rate in terms of lower high-school dropout rate and a better educated populace is far higher the earlier in the process you expose children to the educational system.
When my children were in preschool (ages 3 and 4), they learned rudimentary sign-language. Not only did it provide them with a mechanism to make requests in a noisy environment or until their verbal vocabulary had sufficiently developed, it impressed upon them that a child’s early life was going to be primarily a learning process.
Beyond the advantages to the child’s intellectual capabilities and self-esteem building opportunities, it would provide parents with opportunities to engage in activities for several hours per day that aren’t possible when a child is present – adult education, employment, etc.