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"Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat, but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires."
by mfoy_ 10y ago
"Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat, but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires."
- 13of40 10y agoHaving escaped from poverty in my 20s (I'm one of those guys who made it in software via dumb luck and no college degree) that's a cozy concept, but I don't think it's at all accurate. The poor people I grew up with have no idea of the life we lead. They live in a world where there's no such thing as air travel, you'll probably never travel outside the US, having your car start in the morning (if you've got one) is a sometimes thing, and you'd be mega-rich if you had 4 figures in your bank account - and that's all most of them have ever experienced. They don't see themselves as embarrassed millionaires, because most of them don't even have the faintest understanding of what that means.
- crdoconnor 10y agoSocialism did take hold. It was brutally repressed. The battle of blair mountain is a clear example of what happens when workers demand fair treatment in America. They didn't just send the army in to break the strike, they sent the air force. Though they lost, in the long term it raised awareness enough to actually lead to organized labor victories like the New Deal (which effectively led to the creation of the middle class 'good life' from the 50s). The thing that really worries me is that another, similar battle would be necessary in order to arrest the current decline of the middle class.
- agumonkey 10y agoIs this mentioned ? the new deal thing is world famous, but not the blair mountain event. History ...
- gknoy 10y agoI had never heard of it until I saw it mentioned in an HN comment a year or so ago. For anyone who's interested, here's a link to the Wikipedia article on it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Blair_Mountain https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Blair_Mountain
- agumonkey 10y agoI just read Economix, no mention of it, but I can't blame it really.
- schwap 10y ago> The battle of blair mountain is a clear example of what happens when workers demand fair treatment in America. They didn't just send the army in to break the strike, they sent the air force. The air force? in the 1920s?
- soylentcola 10y agoLooking into this, it seems that pilots were hired to drop bombs on the miners during the uprising.
- facepalm 10y agoJust because you have some insurance your state isn't a socialist state. Socialism would actually mean poverty for everyone. I think even in the US people pay taxes and the government buys things from that which are supposed to help everybody (like, say, roads). Ooops - I guess you already live in a socialist state. Why is it OK to build roads with tax money, but not to provide social insurance? In the end, society pays either way for people who have fallen on hard times: either they pay for welfare, or they pay indirectly by having to deal with the inconvenience they cause (like, as I have heard, human turds on SF streets).