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That answer is complete bullshit. > In the United States, socialism is virtually nonexistent. Except for Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and Unemployment.

That answer is complete bullshit. > In the United States, socialism is virtually nonexistent. Except for Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and Unemployment. And don't forget the military.

lentil_soup 12y ago
Sorry if I am being ignorant, but how's the military a socialist thing?
- confluence 12y ago
  > Every day before dawn, brave men and women of different races and backgrounds rise as one, united by a common cause. They march together in formation, kept in step by their voices joined in song. These workers leave their communal housing arrangements and go toil together “in the field.” While they are out doing their day’s labor, their young are cared for in subsidized childcare programs. If they hurt themselves on the job, they can count on universal health care. Right under your nose, on the fenced-in bases you drive past on your way to work or see on the TV news, a successful experiment in collectivization has been going on for years. -- http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/04/21/troops-of-the-uniform-unite-the-military-is-a-socialist-paradise.html http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/04/21/troops-of-t... > The military is innately hierarchical, yet it nurtures a camaraderie in part because the military looks after its employees. This is a rare enclave of single-payer universal health care, and it continues with a veterans’ health care system that has much lower costs than the American system as a whole. -- http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/16/opinion/16kristof.html?_r=0 http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/16/opinion/16kristof.html?_r=... I'm surprised this isn't obvious to most people. I also find libertarian soldiers extremely amusing.
  - deleted 12y ago
    [deleted]
  - dnautics 12y ago
    (shove the healthcare part aside for a second) to a certain degree, all firms are 'socialist', because they are banding together to not compete with each other. This is the central interesting problem in the 'theory of the firm' which deals with how in a capitalist system groups of individuals band together to not compete. This definition, then is meaningless. Socialism is when a central authority organizes the distribution of labor and resources under the threat of force. As for the healthcare, universal healthcare for soldiers is a horribly malfunctioning system in the US, and it is unlikely to change anytime soon.
    - confluence 12y ago
      It's only malfunction is being poorly funded. The definition is not meaningless. Companies are pretty socialist.
      - dnautics 12y ago
        no it's not. The organization is corrupt from the top. My father is a medium-level executive there. Years ago, he reported that there was black mold in the senior care facility and exposed several million dollars of overbilling by doctors. For his troubles, he was rubber-roomed (paid six salaries to sit in a room with no windows and no responsibilities). This is not an incident that made the major media. Other, more publicised problems exist, in the Phoenix office, and notably at Walter Reed, during the Bush tenure and wars in afghanistan and iraq. But if you seriously have such a belief in the VA, GO ASK 5 VETERANS what they think of it.
jahaja 12y ago
Every tax-financed band-aid to Capitalism is not by some black-magic Socialism per se.
dirktheman 12y ago
By that definition the whole of Western Europe would be a socialist state. Government services like these do not equal socialism. I live in The Netherlands, a pretty liberal kingdom with excellent social security and unemployment benefits. But don't be mistaken, it's not a socialist country. Not by a long shot. The biggest political parties are liberal-conservative and social-democrats. The latter lean towards the left, but our only true socialist party is much more to the left. They're only the sixth party by size.
- confluence 12y ago
  > Government services like these do not equal socialism. Well, they definitely aren't capitalist.
- ceejayoz 12y ago
  > By that definition the whole of Western Europe would be a socialist state. Much of the US believes that to be the case.
  - emsy 12y ago
    Likewise, I've heard people on several occasions call the US a 3rd world country because of its poor social infrastructure.
  - mercurial 12y ago
    It's endlessly bizarre to see Americans throw around the word "socialist" as if it was a curse. Western Europe is made of social democracies. Northern Europe in particular has made the choice to live with high taxes and better social services. It does not mean that they are governed by unelected oligarchs, they get the same kind of elected oligarchs as the rest.
    - ceejayoz 12y ago
      There has been a concerted campaign in the US to convince people that other countries' social services are inefficient, dangerous, and hated by their populations. In a fun example, an American financial newspaper claimed (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/08/12/hawking_british_and_alive/ http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/08/12/hawking_british_and_...) that if Stephen Hawking were British and subject to the NHS that he'd be dead. He is, of course, British.

That answer is complete bullshit. > In the United States, socialism is virtually nonexistent. Except for Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and Unemployment. And don't forget the military.

lentil_soup 12y ago

Sorry if I am being ignorant, but how's the military a socialist thing?

confluence 12y ago
> Every day before dawn, brave men and women of different races and backgrounds rise as one, united by a common cause. They march together in formation, kept in step by their voices joined in song. These workers leave their communal housing arrangements and go toil together “in the field.” While they are out doing their day’s labor, their young are cared for in subsidized childcare programs. If they hurt themselves on the job, they can count on universal health care. Right under your nose, on the fenced-in bases you drive past on your way to work or see on the TV news, a successful experiment in collectivization has been going on for years. -- http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/04/21/troops-of-the-uniform-unite-the-military-is-a-socialist-paradise.html http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/04/21/troops-of-t... > The military is innately hierarchical, yet it nurtures a camaraderie in part because the military looks after its employees. This is a rare enclave of single-payer universal health care, and it continues with a veterans’ health care system that has much lower costs than the American system as a whole. -- http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/16/opinion/16kristof.html?_r=0 http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/16/opinion/16kristof.html?_r=... I'm surprised this isn't obvious to most people. I also find libertarian soldiers extremely amusing.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
- dnautics 12y ago
  (shove the healthcare part aside for a second) to a certain degree, all firms are 'socialist', because they are banding together to not compete with each other. This is the central interesting problem in the 'theory of the firm' which deals with how in a capitalist system groups of individuals band together to not compete. This definition, then is meaningless. Socialism is when a central authority organizes the distribution of labor and resources under the threat of force. As for the healthcare, universal healthcare for soldiers is a horribly malfunctioning system in the US, and it is unlikely to change anytime soon.
  - confluence 12y ago
    It's only malfunction is being poorly funded. The definition is not meaningless. Companies are pretty socialist.
    - dnautics 12y ago
      no it's not. The organization is corrupt from the top. My father is a medium-level executive there. Years ago, he reported that there was black mold in the senior care facility and exposed several million dollars of overbilling by doctors. For his troubles, he was rubber-roomed (paid six salaries to sit in a room with no windows and no responsibilities). This is not an incident that made the major media. Other, more publicised problems exist, in the Phoenix office, and notably at Walter Reed, during the Bush tenure and wars in afghanistan and iraq. But if you seriously have such a belief in the VA, GO ASK 5 VETERANS what they think of it.

jahaja 12y ago

Every tax-financed band-aid to Capitalism is not by some black-magic Socialism per se.

dirktheman 12y ago

By that definition the whole of Western Europe would be a socialist state. Government services like these do not equal socialism. I live in The Netherlands, a pretty liberal kingdom with excellent social security and unemployment benefits. But don't be mistaken, it's not a socialist country. Not by a long shot. The biggest political parties are liberal-conservative and social-democrats. The latter lean towards the left, but our only true socialist party is much more to the left. They're only the sixth party by size.

confluence 12y ago
> Government services like these do not equal socialism. Well, they definitely aren't capitalist.
ceejayoz 12y ago
> By that definition the whole of Western Europe would be a socialist state. Much of the US believes that to be the case.
- emsy 12y ago
  Likewise, I've heard people on several occasions call the US a 3rd world country because of its poor social infrastructure.
- mercurial 12y ago
  It's endlessly bizarre to see Americans throw around the word "socialist" as if it was a curse. Western Europe is made of social democracies. Northern Europe in particular has made the choice to live with high taxes and better social services. It does not mean that they are governed by unelected oligarchs, they get the same kind of elected oligarchs as the rest.
  - ceejayoz 12y ago
    There has been a concerted campaign in the US to convince people that other countries' social services are inefficient, dangerous, and hated by their populations. In a fun example, an American financial newspaper claimed (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/08/12/hawking_british_and_alive/ http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/08/12/hawking_british_and_...) that if Stephen Hawking were British and subject to the NHS that he'd be dead. He is, of course, British.