17 ms·
I think you'd find quite a bit of support from us Europeans, actually – even the ones, like me, who are probably a bit to the right of you politically. I'm not
by adw 16y ago
I think you'd find quite a bit of support from us Europeans, actually – even the ones, like me, who are probably a bit to the right of you politically. I'm not a card-carrying member of any political party, but the American rhetoric on socialism is just absurd.
(Full disclosure: my sympathies are on the market wing of mainstream European liberalism.)
Socialism as used in Europe means social democracy, means free enterprise with regulation and a robust welfare system, and includes the cooperative movement – and you'd be hard pressed to call the third largest private company in the UK (the John Lewis Partnership: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Lewis_Partnership http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Lewis_Partnership) some kind of entryist plot.
Obama a socialist? Don't make us laugh: he's barely a liberal. In Britain he'd be a Tory...
- steveklabnik 16y agoIt's true. I tend to think of HN as being very America-centric, and while I know that's not true, it's easy to forget.
- nhebb 16y agoBroadly speaking, in American politics today the term is used to imply the increased scope, reach, and size of government, inevitably followed by an increase in taxes, It's not a textbook definition of socialism, but it boils down an aversion to the state controlling an increasing percentage of our personal wealth.
- barrkel 16y agoWhereas the alternative, conservatism promulgated by Republicans, implies the increased scope, reach and size of government (armies + war), inevitably followed by an increase in deficits (which "don't matter", but the redirected resources, even if only measured in terms of people employed, do make a difference in productive, rather than destructive, output).
- lzw 16y agoThe republicans are socialists as well. This is a truth that, unfortunately, seems to elude people.