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Buckeye_Democrat

(15,539 posts)

4. What does socialism mean to you?

Wed Jul 31, 2019, 12:03 PM

Jul 2019

Last edited Wed Jul 31, 2019, 12:57 PM - Edit history (1)

I think it means when the government is managing goods and services instead of private industries.

FDR's work programs were socialist, such as the construction of Hoover Dam.

Social Security? Socialism.
Medicare? Socialism.
Public schools? Socialism.
Public roads? Socialism.
The police? Socialism.
The military? Socialism.

Socialism isn't a "bad word" to me.

I think many people confuse it with communism, when the government manages all means of production and there's no private property.

In the USA, many right-wingers will declare anything socialist unless it's police and military-related, or pretty much any service that they can't buy themselves. They can afford private healthcare, private schools and the like, so their focus is on the government programs that THEY need.

Right-wingers have molded the narrative for years: Government is bad if it helps the general population, and it's good when it protects the interests of the most wealthy.

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Were FDR's economic policies "too socialist" for anyone here? [View all] Buckeye_Democrat Jul 2019 OP

Yes. Social Security/Medicare makes old people lazy! leftstreet Jul 2019 #1

find a job you like and you can do it forever! rampartc Jul 2019 #2

I like all his programs and also those signed in by LBJ like Medicare. GulfCoast66 Jul 2019 #3

What does socialism mean to you? Buckeye_Democrat Jul 2019 #4

That is not what socialism means. GulfCoast66 Jul 2019 #6

Exactly right +++ comradebillyboy Jul 2019 #7

Great post, Gulf Coast Poiuyt Jul 2019 #11

Sorry I trust Chomsky more than you ChubbyStar Jul 2019 #16

I never asked you to trust me. Hell, you don't even know me! GulfCoast66 Jul 2019 #17

I disagree. Buckeye_Democrat Aug 2019 #23

Precisely JHB Aug 2019 #25

Socialism is not government control of production. flaval Aug 2019 #26

That's a difference with no distinction... GulfCoast66 Aug 2019 #27

The National Recovery Administration was terribly anti-competitive Jose Garcia Jul 2019 #5

Some would say that FDR Trumpocalypse Jul 2019 #8

Agree with your first 2 criticism. But not the third. GulfCoast66 Jul 2019 #12

FDR built the military industrial complex Trumpocalypse Aug 2019 #18

Well, he had a global war against Nazis and imperial Japan to win... GulfCoast66 Aug 2019 #19

Not saying that Trumpocalypse Aug 2019 #20

And the alternative? Losing the war. GulfCoast66 Aug 2019 #21

Not the point Trumpocalypse Aug 2019 #22

FDR's economic policies were probably too racist for most people here Spider Jerusalem Jul 2019 #9

Yeah. True. But he had to have the southern democrats. GulfCoast66 Jul 2019 #13

not for this guy and onethatcares Jul 2019 #10

Without Social Security Retirement we would be in serious financial trouble. trof Jul 2019 #14

FDR saved capitalism Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin Jul 2019 #15

Ironically, he was excoriated as a corporatist and sell-out by the socialists and populists Recursion Aug 2019 #24

Right. It astounds me that so many on the left push this idea. GulfCoast66 Aug 2019 #28

FDR left large swaths of the country's population out of his policies. Blue_true Aug 2019 #29