COVER STORY: BUSINESS

We Are All Socialists Now

In many ways our economy already resembles a European one. As boomers age and spending grows, we will become even more French.

By Jon Meacham and Evan Thomas | NEWSWEEK
Published Feb 7, 2009
From the magazine issue dated Feb 16, 2009

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  • Posted By: allmhuran @ 11/19/2009 4:43:47 PM

    The Bush administration was not Conservative. We all know this much. It was globalist. Just like the current one. Yes we are on the verge of becoming like a European state. If you're a Bible believer it's suppose to end up that way. As we draw closer to Copenhagen prepare for the end of usa sovereignty. A one world government awaits us. You will temporarily bow to a higher authority. Not God's. As prohecised in the Book of Daniel the 4th and final kingdom is rising. And so be it. Mankind has done a horrible job managing this place since the garden of Eden. The kingdom of God on earth will follow for those whose names are written in the book of life. This planet belongs to God not humanity.

  • Posted By: albalma @ 10/31/2009 7:31:33 PM

    It seems like in the U.S. there's a lot of people trying to make the government fail. They must be having tremendous issues against their own country if they support ideas like what Fox News is spreading all over. Opinions without support, factoids without any connection to reality, suppressive sociopaths with no other visible aim but destroying what once was the leader of the free world.

    The only reason the U.S. is the power it is today is because the people understood what a community means; people appreciating others and paying better salaries is what has made it what it is. Without social conscience there would not be a country here. The U.S. was the first widely spread socialist country in the world, there lies it's strength and success.

    Those going against people helping each other are going against the future of this country. They fail to understand what this country is all about. It almost seems like the Republicans are the new Confederate Army trying to get some revenge over the civil war. They are being Anti-Americans disguising their attacks as patriotism, when they really don't have any allegiances other than their own pockets and those of the ones that buy their time for greed or maybe something more sinister.

    Critical thinking and social conscience is what this country needs every one of its citizens to have, choking ideas, whether deemed "liberal", "socialist" or whatever you want to call them is a disservice to this country, which was founded on the very principles these "newscasters" are trying to eliminate: freedom of thinking, freedom of expression and tolerance for other's ideas. That's what the U.S. is about, respecting others no matter what (color, race, creed or ideals included).

    So I'd tell Fox News and Rush Limbaugh (is that French or something?), to get on the side of We The People (that's right, not we the companies) and start supporting ideas that are good for everyone, instead of trying to kill everything that has made this country what it is, their country too, no matter how much they may hate it or the people within it.

  • Posted By: Fernadez @ 09/22/2009 6:28:11 AM

    With Regards to Health-Care,Many don't have Constructive debates about The Facts and Realties that affected millions of Americans.

    What they're offering are destructive competition seeks to benefit an individual/group/organism by damaging and/or eliminating competing individuals, groups and/or organisms; it opposes the desire for mutual survival. It is "winner takes all" the rationale being that the challenge is a zero-sum game; the success of one group is dependent on the failure of the other competing groups. Destructive competition tends to promote fear, a "strike-first" mentality and embraces certain forms of trespass.

    What American needs a Healthy Debates that reflected on REAL cheaper,smarter business alternatives market,NOT polital motivated market.that monopoly about the facts.

    The Facts : American Needs Contructive and Real Market Competition to make Health-Care more affortable and Cheap to all Americans,If this not an option practices,then the truth all americans are at losing game on everything,Not even with a Good Policy,or Good judgement Senate or Good President can do much.

    Thru my experienced working abroad,convinced me that on my agrument about the reality of Facts that Americans are at downhill of his lifes,not only on his Health-Care,but everything in life,.

    Let me bring example how we are losing out to compete in real market practice,,according to director of public relations and marketing,Mr Geoff Moss,a medical tourism company set up in 2002,sends more than 3,000 patients a year overseas,"Singapore 's values proposition is medical innovation,especially stem cells,plus there are state of the art doctors and facilities 'said Mr Moss.

    One is Ms Suzzane Rakow,who recently had a tumor removed at Mount Elizabeth Medical Centre,after being diagnosed with early stage breast cancer.The treatment would have cost her an estimated US1000,000 in US,Her Singapore trip-including flying over,her stay and treatment costs come to just under US30,000.

    "so I saved US70,000,in all she said",her time in singapore included a two week holiday in Bali during a month break between surgery and starting radiation treatment"

    One reason for their confidence in seeking treatment in Asia is the stamp of Qualification these Hospitals have accured with JCI accreditation,JCI or Joint Commission International,accredits hospitals that meet the quality of care expected of good hospital in United States.All 15 Hoispital in Singapore have such credentials.WHO rated singapore on world wide standing as 6th position .while US at 37 position on Health-Care..Thats the Fact wheither you like or Not!

  • Posted By: jimv960 @ 09/14/2009 7:08:23 PM

    And just to add, when you bring up the word "socialist" in every
    other sentence,all you are advertising is you are uneducated,had
    low SAT scores, and are generally someone who intelligent people
    find any way they can to avoid.Pity their poor significant others,
    whose life sentence is to listen to these gasbags.

  • Posted By: jimv960 @ 09/14/2009 7:01:58 PM

    I'm white,near 50,a veteran with the better part of a decade in in service.
    By all rights I should be an angry "tea party' lunatic who listens to that
    pathetic "Jodie" Hannity or the drug addict windbag Rush.
    But those people sicken me.Most have never served their country for
    a day,let alone in a combat unit,but you would never know it from the way they
    idolize the military.They are obese, hate higher education/learning
    with a vengeance, and are generally religious imbeciles who hate Obama for
    the single solitary reason that he is BLACK.To listen to their denials is the
    very definition of pathetic.
    The saddest part is when they assume I am 'one of them' because of
    my profession,color, and military record.
    I am tired of being led by Forrest Gump.Good intentions are NOT ENOUGH,
    there are STUPID QUESTIONS, and enough damage has been done to this great
    nations by stupid people.

  • Posted By: Mamasauras @ 02/11/2009 7:53:33 AM

    We are NOT all socialists! Some of us are THE RESISTANCE -- conservatives and libertarians in exile! You can't totally blame Prez Bush for the $700 billion package last fall - the congress was run by Democrats who marched lock step over the cliff dragging America with them. The press were so lopsided in their coverage during the campaign there wasn't a level playing field for anyone but "the messiah". Now we're stuck with Adolf Obama and his Democratic Socialism. Hope it doesn't turn out like the other Adolf after he charmed his country into a "mandate for change". RIght now it looks like it with the sweeping take over of health care and expanded abortion "rights" for getting "rid of" inconvenient pregnancies, next is euthanization in the form of "right to die" and withholding medical treatment will "get rid of" inconvenient old people and the infirm. WAKE UP AMERICA!!!

    • Posted By: Horrible Bastard @ 02/11/2009 8:37:24 AM

      " Some of us are THE RESISTANCE "

      Hahaha! Someone's been watching the first Rambo movie too much.

      • Posted By: Frederick Furreal @ 09/09/2009 7:31:38 PM

        No way! WOLVERINES!!! Tard..

      • Posted By: Mamasauras @ 02/11/2009 8:57:03 AM

        Not all of us will lie there and let the government trucks run over us. We are still Americans and as long as we're breathing are up to another Revolution if necessary to take back our country.

        • Posted By: Horrible Bastard @ 02/11/2009 9:13:41 AM

          There will be no second American revolution, at least not as long as the television works.

          • Posted By: Mamasauras @ 02/11/2009 1:49:48 PM

            You have no clue how the "silent majority" in this country is fed up and ready to revolt.

            • Posted By: Braes @ 08/27/2009 12:33:11 AM

              Feel free to start today. Dare you. Come on talker, pick up that gun and go get you some government.
              Threaten some more. No fear here. Active Military, Retired. Waiting to be recalled to put down the rebellion.
              Please. Start your war. Please. Pick it up and start.

              • Posted By: Apolitical @ 09/04/2009 1:18:44 PM

                Braes - Right on man! Let them heed these kooks' call to "...water the tree of liberty with blood..." of right-wing idiots. I wish that the idiots who brought guns to townhalls did draw it to see how the tree is watered with blood of morons. But I would guess they are all posturing. They are too coward to do it.

      • Posted By: emily.griffith @ 02/11/2009 8:56:20 AM

        Or listening to too much Sean Hannity.

    • Posted By: Horrible Bastard @ 02/11/2009 8:38:07 AM

      "and withholding medical treatment will "get rid of" inconvenient old people and the infirm. "

      Your system already does that.

      • Posted By: Mamasauras @ 02/11/2009 8:52:44 AM

        There are those who abuse the system... Michael Schaivo for instance. Having been the caregiver for both my parents and in-laws I can tell you they received excellent medical care and were not refused treatment because of their age or declining health. That will change with the new health provisions hidden in the "stimulus package".

        • Posted By: Horrible Bastard @ 02/11/2009 9:12:57 AM

          And then there's people who simply can't afford health insurance. But they don't count, right?

          • Posted By: Mamasauras @ 02/11/2009 1:48:32 PM

            There are systems in place for those who don't have / can't afford medical care. It's not great, but if medical care is needed, it is not denied. Under the new proposals, a health czar will decide whether a person will get the medical care their doctor recommends. Therefore, if you are too old, you don't get the insulin because there might be some 30 yr old out there who needs it more...

            • Posted By: gayle1942 @ 08/29/2009 11:53:14 AM

              Therefore, if you are too old, you don't get the insulin because there might be some 30 yr old out there who needs it more

              That is utter nonsense! Right now there are lots and lots of people who aren't getting the medicne they need because of our current system. Medical coverage for all will never cause as much hardship as it cures. I don't think it will create any hardship but it will surely cure a lot of current hardship. I trust the government a lot more than I trust the for-profit companies who routinely deny coverage because of their bottom line -- not to mention the people who have no coverage at all and must forego treatment until they are really sick because of finances..

            • Posted By: gayle1942 @ 08/29/2009 11:37:33 AM

              Oh yeah, there are systems in place all right. Like going to the emergency room and then be hounded forever after to pay an outlandish bill that, if the person could have afforded, they could have afforded insurance. Not much of a system if you ask me. People who have to hide their heads in shame because they can't pay a bill that was unavoidable because as a society we have been unwilling to be the Christian nation everyone claims -- we refuse to feed the poor and comfort the sick. If we don't do something soon, you may see a revolution that isn't what you think it will be but it will be the poor people (the biggest segment of our country) demanding help. It would make more sense to make changes in an orderly fashion rather than have an uprising on our hands.
              Besides, if you don't want a socialist society then we need to start paying for the police when we call them and the same with the fire department. And that street in front of you house needs to become a toll road as does every other street, road, and highway in the entire country. Everything would need to become a pay as you use it sort of service. After all, be definition, if the government pays for it, it's socialistic. I don't know about you, but that's not my vision of Americe.

      • Posted By: emily.griffith @ 02/11/2009 9:06:21 AM

        conservatives in exhile? Really? Because you guys have been flapping your gums non-stop since Obama was elected. Guess what? Sean Hannity has an agenda. Rush Limbaugh has an agenda. And both aim to make as much money as possible, and they do that by tossing out sensational tag lines like "conservatism in exhile" or "conservative underground". It's all for your entertainment, but the the jokes on you. Neither of those two weenies care about anything other than putting another dime in their pocket, and will have you believing anything to do so.

        • Posted By: Mamasauras @ 08/14/2009 7:32:00 PM

          Look in the mirror. That's the socialist playbook.

  • Posted By: veryverysad @ 09/05/2009 2:35:22 PM

    It's all to predictable. Our society is simply reverting to the mean. People are more willing to be told what to do, to expect someone else to do for them, and to basically be lazy - exactly like France.

    It takes hard work to be extraordinary which eventually takes its toll on the populace. In ride liberalism (in the American sense) to tell us all to just relax and let "the man" take care of it all.

    What is so ironic is that the 1960's brought us Liberals screaming to reject "the man". Now that they basically run the government, media, and educational systems we're told to run back to "the man" for a big old government hug and pat on the head.

    Sad cannot begin to describe it.

  • Posted By: lcase373 @ 09/04/2009 2:55:52 PM

    WoW. The amount of absolute ignorance and utter naivety displayed on this page from top to bottom is nothing short of astounding.

    Does no one study history anymore? We all know how that usually turns out.

    "Toute nation a le gouvernement qu???elle mérite"" - Roughly translated: Every country has the government it deserves

    After reading this article and it's associated comments I've come to the conclusion that I want no part of the government you people deserve. I have a feeling that once it's here neither will you.

  • Posted By: scserau @ 08/26/2009 10:44:30 PM

    In his book "Common Sense", Thomas Paine wrote that government is at best, a necessary evil. At worst, it's an intolerable one. It's sad that the greatest minds in our country's history have been dead for two hundred years. I wonder what they would say if they were around to witness the debacle that has become the government of the United States.

  • Posted By: seannnn @ 08/06/2009 11:03:58 AM

    Why is Socialism a bad word in America? The Boston tea party was a long time ago. Get over it. Amercia still seems to define itself as anti-government and anti-community. Government isn't perfect but can be counted on MORE than greedy CEOs. Helping less advantaged by redistributing wealth isn't socialism -- it's honorable, it's humanitarian, and it's christian. Redisitributing wealth to strengthen the community is accepted in your churches so why not use the same thinking and help your fellow citizens?

    America isn't the land of the free. It has become the land of the lost. Giving money to and bailing out the rich; spending more on tax breaks for plastic surgery when inner city children need basic health care; protecting companies that exploit the environment and poor countries? Shame on America!

    You know who were great American socialists? Washington -- believed in equality and fought for all, not just priviledged citizens. Lincoln -- who prized equal rights to ALL citizens, not just slave owners. Stop letting corporate elites dictate what makes you American. You are greater than any dollar amount!

    Get back to what made this country great -- put the UNITED back in the States, and the ALL back in the pledge of allegiance.

    • Posted By: liara @ 08/12/2009 3:24:45 PM

      Oh and by the way: you seem to espouse the typical popular lies about Lincoln. If you read more into the man's life than is written on Wikipedia, you will find that he was quite alarmingly racist and perpetrated unforgivable crimes by ordering the execution of American citizens in the Civil War. He was in fact one of our worst, most dictatorial presidents. And he didn't free the slaves because he believed slavery was wrong, as he himself wrote:

      "If I could save the Union without freeing any slaves, I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it, and if I could do it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also so that"

      -Lincoln, (Voices of America, p.138).

      • Posted By: mecormany @ 08/13/2009 12:37:01 AM

        liara - and you present the most typical lies about Lincoln, including the racists famous quote of his, taken totally of context and polticial contect.
        His next paragraph stated " I have here stated my official duty, but I intend no modification of my oft-expressed personal wish that all men, everywhere should be free." You also negelct to mention this was part of a letter written to Horace Greeley, publisher of the NY Tribune, New York city being a hotbed of white supremacy, and this was written at a time Lincoln needed all the war support he could get. He was known from the 1840s on as having "rock-solid anti-slavery beliefs" which is why the Southern states seceded as soon as he won the presidency. He stated on many occasions that "If slavery is not wrong, then nothing is wrong." He was a man of his time and wrestled with his own racism demons at times, but he was far more advanced in his friendships and efforts for black eqaulity than many people are today. And when it came down to the nitty-gritty he always voted or did what was right. He may not be the saint, many portray him as, but please don't use him for your half-baked idea about race, socialism or anything else.
        pauljb - Redistribution of wealth is theft! Just so, just so. But were you complaining when Bush had it flowing the ohter way? I sincerely doubt it.

        • Posted By: liara @ 08/13/2009 10:50:12 AM

          If we are to believe everything a politician says to justify incredibly fascist actions, then the last eight years must have been the golden age in America. Wars are always fought to centralize and strengthen central power and control over citizens. Lincoln used emancipation as a tool of war and has just as many words and communications supporting this as campy soundbites from speeches where he plays the freedom-loving slave savior. The fact of his actions is that the murdered millions of American citizens for failing to obey his allmighty power, then let the country fall into horrific disarray in the Reconstruction era, leaving the now-freed blacks to hellish life of Jim Crowe laws, indentured servitude and inescapable persecution and murder. Integrating them into society just somehow wasn't as important to him after the war was won. The myth of an equality-loving North versus a slave-loving South is laughable-- most of the wonderful Northerners were more racist than any in the South and advocated nothing less than the deportation of all blacks. As long as you only get your history from government-written textbooks distributed in government-run schools, every war in our history will be great and every president a hero. Perhaps if emancipation was so important to Lincoln he could have written the Proclamation with the slaughter of millions.

    • Posted By: liara @ 08/12/2009 3:19:13 PM

      Can you really be so ignorant that you don't realize that all of the wrongs you lament are DONE BY the government? Bailing out the rich: Government. Special protections for the wealthy: Government. Protecting, enabling, funding companies that exploit: Government. Wake up: The greedy CEOs, power elite, corporate criminals ARE the people that run the government! And you want to hand over control of your life, well being and security to these criminals?! Why is socialism -- or fascism, what this country is really evolving into -- such a "bad word"? As Emma Goldman put brilliantly: "There has never been a good government".

    • Posted By: liara @ 08/12/2009 3:18:57 PM

      Can you really be so ignorant that you don't realize that all of the wrongs you lament are DONE BY the government? Bailing out the rich: Government. Special protections for the wealthy: Government. Protecting, enabling, funding companies that exploit: Government. Exploiting, spying, stealing, even murdering: GOVERNMENT. Wake up: The greedy CEOs, power elite, corporate criminals ARE the people that run the government! And you want to hand over control of your life, well being and security to these criminals?! Why is socialism -- or fascism, what this country is really evolving into -- such a "bad word"? As Emma Goldman put brilliantly: "There has never been a good government".

  • Posted By: CncrndEductr @ 07/30/2009 10:59:37 AM

    WHAT IS WRONG WITH US AS A NATION?! Capitalism, in its simplest definition, is free trade, no protection. Did we not see what happened with the banks? Everyone one of them should have failed, so that newer innovative factions could take over! It's not Obama, it's not Bush. It's the greedy politicians that we elect to put in office because we trust that they have our best interests in mind.

    I will never say that we are true Socialists, but I will agree with a previous commenter in saying that we are only as strong as our poorest citizen. Taking the side of the corporations is like backing the popular kids because you crave peer acceptance.

    How many of you have actually held your Congress members accountable? Being a teacher, I see it everyday. Your children are just mini-mirrors. Everything you agree with, they agree with. Everything you complain about, they complain about. The opinions are normally highly underinvestigated and misinterpreted.

    STOP WITH THE ENTITLEMENT ISSUES!! We are in deep doo-doo! Roll your sleeves up and get to work. Stop complaining and make a difference!

  • Posted By: CncrndEductr @ 07/30/2009 10:58:16 AM

    WHAT IS WRONG WITH US AS A NATION?! Capitalism, in its simplest definition, is free trade, no protection. Did we not see what happened with the banks? Everyone one of them should have failed, so that newer innovative factions could take over! It's not Obama, it's not Bush. It's the greedy politicians that we elect to put in office because we trust that they have our best interests in mind.

    I will never say that we are true Socialists, but I will agree with a previous commenter in saying that we are only as strong as our poorest citizen. Taking the side of the corporations is like backing the popular kids because you crave peer acceptance.

    How many of you have actually held your Congress members accountable? Being a teacher, I see it everyday. Your children are just mini-mirrors. Everything you agree with, they agree with. Everything you complain about, they complain about. The opinions are normally highly underinvestigated and misinterpreted.

    STOP WITH THE ENTITLEMENT ISSUES!! We are in deep doo-doo! Roll your sleeves up and get to work. Stop complaining and make a difference!

  • Posted By: revolverBoy @ 07/27/2009 10:11:29 PM

    Yep, Bush was a conservative president who outspent all the Democrats in history, including FDR's New Deal and JFK's Vietnam and moonquest. He was a conservative who used the Bill of Rights as an assrag with his profoundly sad and unconstitutional Patriot Act II. He was a conservative who thinks government should use force to confiscate the money of some people and give it away to other people - creating new classes of dependency and obligation in the form of prescription drug benefits. He's the conservative who believed that the US should spend $1 trillion a year to police the world, protect our financial and security interests abroad and here at home - even though the 135 military bases around the world did nothing to thwart the 9/11 attacks on our own soil. Even though not a dime of that money was directed to protect the southern border, which has been a crossing point for agents of terror (not just Mexicans looking for work and free services). Maybe it's that ranch in Texas that makes him conservative. Wait a minute, now that he's not president, he left the cowboy hat and boots in Crawford and moved to a suburb in Dallas.

    Perhaps it might come as a surprise to Meacham and Thomas, and a lot of other liberal journalists as well, that the true conservatives living in this country will tell you that Bush knows as much about conservativism as Barack Obama. If you want an idea of what a conservative president looks like, see the limited-government, noninterventionist conservative Calvin Coolidge, who left office respectfully better than he found it - with the government at 3% of GDP.

  • Posted By: John14John @ 07/24/2009 1:20:41 PM

    One question. Do you know why America has accomplished what we have in a short 200 years? Because we subscribed to a capitalist approach, although it has had way to much govt intervention. Keep going socialist / backwards, and this country is RUINED. Just look around, for once. It's a FAILED experiment. Do your homework. Don't rely on news and ad sellers for your knowledge. STOP RUINING AMERICA.

  • Posted By: John14John @ 07/24/2009 1:15:39 PM

    We gave a lot of dems / no real effort people the chance for something, a mortgage and a home without any requirements. What did they do? Squandered it and they put the productive into a bad situation once again. It's a failure mentality. You see what they do when given a gift. Give them healthcare for no effort? Good night America. People need to stand up and revolt NOW. DO NOT TAKE THIS.

  • Posted By: abartelt @ 03/10/2009 9:47:34 PM

    So Sam...Obama's past gives us no reason to doubt his words? Do you know anything about Mr. Obama? I'm going to give you a couple topics to do a little study on and allow you to rethink that statement and give you a chance to redeem yourself: ACORN, Cloward-Piven, and Saul Alinsky. You see this "economic crisis" is no accident. It is pre-meditated, orchestrated chaos and with the new spending bill it will only get worse. Obama knows that his ridiculous spending wont save the economy. He doesn't intend it to. What he intends to do my friend, is send the American economy into a downward spiral to create mass chaos in order to bring about radical political and social change. In the words of radical socialist Saul Alinsky "Disorganize and reorganize" All of you liberal left-wing followers are being led like sheep to the slaughter. Take the blindfolds off and do some research. Have you ever checked to see what happens to countries when they go socialist? They either become dictatorships or they cease to exist. Capitalism is what made this country great. Barack Obama is a radical socialist who will not even provide proof that he is a citizen of the country that he has been elected to govern.

    • Posted By: ModernIconoclast @ 03/12/2009 12:50:04 PM

      Most European Countries and our own neighbor Canada would be considered socialiost by American standards, and they are not floundering dictatorships. The truth is that most Americans cannot adequately define socialism; it has become a right-wing buzzword since the early days of the New Deal, the Cold War, and the Great Society. The only question regarding our tax system and economic structure is: who pays & who benefits. Americans recently experiencing economic turmoil may begin to realize that under our current system, it doesn't pay to be middle class in this country. The Middle Class pay more in taxes for the entitlements of the underclass while the rich continue to sustain and amass their personal wealth - that is capitalism; debt is a form of social control.

      • Posted By: Offatwork @ 07/21/2009 2:13:28 PM

        Really, well the definition is pretty straightforward if you ask me. The definition of Socialism is the social organization that advocates the vesting of the ownership and control of the means of production and distribution, of capital, land, etc., in the community as a whole. In other words, trying to bring unconscious actions of the market into conscious light.

        I hardly consider European nations and Canada as a level of standard with which to be modeled after. High rates of unemployment, moderate wages with low working hours, standard of freedom fairly poor, a poorly structured rationing of health-care - one of which some others flee to capitalist societies in order to actually get the care they need quickly. All of which are headed our way with a more costly (than our current situation) health-care bill to boot.

        In short, there will not be any Renaissance for quite some time if we keep following down this road.

    • Posted By: surfbored @ 03/13/2009 5:57:54 PM

      Ugh! Climb down out of the clock tower and set your rifle on the ground. More medication is on the way.

      • Posted By: dmb12345 @ 03/26/2009 7:45:32 AM

        High and mighty take some valium on you delusional mind.

    • Posted By: surfbored @ 03/13/2009 5:58:20 PM

      Ugh! Climb down out of the clock tower and set your rifle on the ground. More medication is on the way.

  • Posted By: John14John @ 07/24/2009 1:09:11 PM

    Only a failure in life subscribes to the socialist mentality.

  • Posted By: drewand @ 07/20/2009 5:05:57 PM

    Socialist? Are you serious? Listen people, we are not socialist, not even close! Those of you who accuse this administration of turning America socialist are nothing but fear mongers. Preying on the uninformed and paranoid. The problem is that 90% of our country's wealth is controled by less than 10% of our population. These people have finacially raped this country and the rest of us for 30 years. Are you better off now than 10 years ago? Probably not, and guess what? The upper crush doesn't care a bit, just so long as they get to keep all that yummy money they stole, with the help of their Congressional buddies. Wake up America! We would probably all be better off if we were socialist.

    • Posted By: Offatwork @ 07/21/2009 2:01:49 PM

      Haha! This is a laugh simply because it's so contradictory:

      "Socialist? Are you serious? Listen people, we are not socialist, not even close!"

      You go ahead and say this... then wrap your convoluted logic around to this:

      "The problem is that 90% of our country's wealth is [controlled] by less than 10% of our population. These people have [financially] raped this country and the rest of us for 30 years."

      This simply speaks for itself but I'd still like to address this. What you are hearing is a common myth. First off, it wasn't in the "past 30 years". Secondly, the high levels of wealth in the top percentile is not because of evil Economics. It's because of the information age boom which increased capital immensely within the nation - it's what drove our biggest economic boom. This was also seen in the 1920's, this high level of capital investment. Certainly this did rapidly increase the income of the top percentage but that doesn't mean that the middle class was suffering, only growing at a slower pace. It certainly looks like people are loosing money though when someone twists the numbers.

      "Are you better off now than 10 years ago?"

      Yes. Most people were better off - before the bubble collapse of course. Common medical advancements and our high standard of living can attest to this fact. What in the world makes you think otherwise? The incredibly close-minded ecologists? (although to be fair, the only ecologists which have a voice today are bureaucrats, I don't mean to slam all of them) It is so easy to place blame on someone else but yourself, surely it was some evil force that created such wrong-doings, yet commonly people need to look at themselves first.

      "Wake up America! We would probably all be better off if we were socialist."

      And this would be simple Economic ignorance.

  • Posted By: TeachAMan2Fish @ 04/18/2009 2:55:45 PM

    Interesting that Newsweek plagerized the saying "We are all socialists now" taken from William Vernon Harcourt (1827-1904) to this conclusion, "Now comes the reckoning. The answer may indeed be more government." We the people have been here before under the restructuring of Europe in the League of Nations, and the New Deal, and have not been the America our founders created since then. Secular socialism is blind to the problems it is creating, similar ideologies had given us Naziism (nationalizing businesses for political advance that led to war), and ranging to France, England, and Sweden whose teetering governments have always been on the brink of chaos. If "We are all socialists now", that razors edge of tyranny is getting sharper towards a falling of dominoes into fascism, and unknowingly our nation will become equal serfs-- 'useful idiots' during our newest class war similar to the Bolshevik revolutionary days of communism. Wake up socialists, or lose our freedom.

    • Posted By: murschel @ 04/26/2009 1:16:58 PM

      As is usual for extreme right-wingers, you exaggerate the situation. The US has been a social-democracy in all but name for a very long time. Medicare, social security, welfare, etc. These are all socialist tools and for the most part, they work as intended. Right-wingers need to face reality and understand that a certain amount of government intervention in people's lives is inevitable and necessary. Without a strong central government, our union would cease to exist and we would fragment into a bunch of squabbling little monarchies all trying to claw their way to the top. Is that what you really want?

      • Posted By: Offatwork @ 07/21/2009 12:27:39 PM

        Exaggerate the situation? It's at our doorstep and all you do is turn your head blindly!

        "The US has been a social-democracy in all but name for a very long time. Medicare, social security, welfare, etc."

        Then why try and drastically change the system if it's doing "so well"? Why, because of course it's not! It's breaking down and the only answer our current administration is doing is more of what got us into this mess in the first place! Welfare does not work as intended, nether do health care and anyone with any common, basic Economic background can tell you that.

        "These are all socialist tools and for the most part, they work as intended."

        Well I guess if you want to consider keeping the poor, poor as the "right" intention then you may have a point. Socialism. Does not. Work. It did not work in Russia where they killed all the Kulaks (but hey, they were capitalist pigs, right?). It did not work in Germany where they killed the Jews (but hey, they were capitalist pigs, right?). It did not, and does not, work in China where there was the Great Famine of China. In fact, most countries who have strong socialism flee those very countries to move into other countries that have stronger capitalistic roots.

        Hong Kong has been the number 1 freest region in the world for the past 15 years, they have the third best standard of education worldwide, and they have an average GDP per household rivaling that of the entire nation of the United States. All under absolute free trade. I'm so shocked at the amount of people in America who do not wish people to be able to trade freely with one another with as limited restrictions as possible; it seems so asinine to think otherwise!

        "Without a strong central government, our union would cease to exist and we would fragment into a bunch of squabbling little monarchies all trying to claw their way to the top. Is that what you really want?"

        And now we get the classic fear mongering from the left. I stand by this statement: Anyone who does not support free trade runs off of fears dating back to when monarchies ruled, the Rule of Law didn't exist, and the Pope was King.

  • Posted By: Ublanketyblank @ 07/03/2009 9:44:25 PM

    We are all socialist now? Speak for yourself. We are not all socialist now and that's a stupid thing to say. This country has never been socialist. How do they know if socialism is bad if we've never been a socialist nation to begin with? We are ardently, religiously and sickeningly a capitalist country. The capitalism in this country is cut loose from any moral or ethical constraints. It has turned a pathetic few into "gods". Thanks to the Manure Spreading Media. Which are owned by capitalistic socialists.

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