socialism is a bad thing and why.

Union of Soviet SOCIALIST Republics- need I say more?? a clear cut example of the failure of socialism in action.

socialism in the U.S. is a recipe for disaster and a prelude to terrible times ahead.

As jew lay pointed out, socialism is not the same thing as communism. The USSR was communist as well as purportedly socialist.

Many countries have been successful in applying socialist principles - as in Scandinavia, with its firmly established systems of social welfare, education, workers’ participation and rights.

A government that is big enough to give you everything, is big enough to take all you have, freedom no more.

Collectivism in any form is socialistic, and all forms of society involve some kind of collectivization.

The distinctions are a matter of degree, and a matter of enforcement; community enforcement or central authority enforcement. But they are not a matter of principle.

Even an anarchist society based on common law would have socialistic aspects. In my mind, the distinction is less about economic systems, and more about who has power - a central authority, or individuals.

Folks…live in Europe and you’ll see why ‘socialism’ isn’t bad. It isn’t great if you are wealthy, but it is better for the masses of people…when it works. Europeans live longer, they have a better quality of life, and they don’t live a life absorbed in credit.

I’m an American living in Belgium. I love the USA, but with 30,000,000 lacking health insurance and bankrupting the system, I can say that Europe is just better for the average person.

One note, most European countries are not ‘socialist’ like Marx would have liked. They mix socialism with capitalism. But no system is perfect!

Capitalism, Socialism, and Communism are economic systems and economic ideologies.

There is nothing inherently good or bad about any of these systems. There is a lot of truth in the axiom that Capitalism is the most efficient system for creating wealth but the least at distributing it and Communism is the least efficient at creating it but the most efficient at distributing it. Socialism being an intermediate economic system does a pretty good job at both.

I consider myself a pragmatist. I don’t judge programs based on whether they conform to a specific ideology, I judge them by how well they work.