We are going to hear a lot of rhetoric about how the Democrats are pushing a socialist agenda.
The reason for that is that the word Socialism has negative connotations in this country. We have associated it with both Communism and to some extent with National Socialism (NAZIs). Certainly it is not well explained, at least in undergraduate classes, as a system.
Socialism simply means looking at the welfare of the many as opposed to letting a few accumulate all the wealth and property. There are examples of socialist societies where this concept taken to an extreme led to reduced economic opportunity for all. That is not either a universal or foregone conclusion of implementing social policies.
If you consider Western Europe you see many examples of socialist type policies that have not led to the disintegration of the economies. Providing things like education, health care, job opportunities and pensions has not destroyed their economies. Generally what you see is a trade off between higher taxes and higher benefits but because of these policies pretty much everyone is guaranteed a certain standard of living.
The question really is are we a society which cares for its members or just a collection of individuals where only the fittest survive?
If you favor the second option, what do you think the poor and disenfranchised are going to do?
We are the richest nation that ever existed and yet we have significant groups that get inadequate education, inadequate health care and insecure old age benefits.
Shouldn't we do better as a society?
Is that socialism? Does it matter?
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