Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Democratic Socialism


Addicting Info.org wants to explain to you what Democratic Socialism means.

To a Democratic Socialist, sharing the wealth means pooling tax money together to design social programs that benefit ALL citizens of that country, city, state, etc.
The fire and police departments are both excellent examples of Democratic Socialism in America. Rather than leaving each individual responsible for protecting their own home from fire, everyone pools their money together, through taxes, to maintain a fire and police department. It’s operated under a non-profit status, and yes, your tax dollars pay for putting out other people’s fires. It would almost seem absurd to think of some corporation profiting from putting out fires.  But it’s more efficient and far less expensive to have government run fire departments funded by tax dollars.
Similarly, public education is another social program in the USA. It benefits all of us to have a taxpayer supported, publicly run education system. Unfortunately, in America, the public education system ends with high school.  Most of Europe now provides low cost or free college education for their citizens. This is because their citizens understand that an educated society is a safer, more productive and more prosperous society. Living in such a society, everyone benefits from public education.
...you can read it all here

8 comments:

Hugh Jee From Jersey said...

I always thought it was interesting in the way conservatives canonize the Founding Fathers and the first European settlers of The New World. In the Cape Cod museum in Eastham there is an exhibit detailing the first public school in Massachusetts in the Pilgrim's Plymouth colony. If you wanted your kid to learn to read and write and add and subtract, you gave the schoolmasters a bushel of corn....in a sense, this was the first property tax to support public education.

I wonder what would have happened had Grover Norquist's forefathers come over on the Mayflower?

Jerry Critter said...

Oh, Sue. This is just way too intellectual for the average republican/teabagger. All they know is:

Socialism = Bad. Rush said so.

John Myste said...

Great! I think I have been banned from the Hate post.

I just checked and my last response never showed up.

I am hurt by this. It's painful.

Shaw Kenawe said...

John,

Sometimes Blogger dumps comments into the spam folder--for no apparent reason. All of us who use Blogger need to check the "comment" tab during the day to make sure a comment was unintentionally dumped there.

Sue,

I've been pointing this out for a long, long time to conservative/TPers who call the president a socialist.

They don't understand it. And they think Bachmann, Perry, or Palin would be a great president.

Need we say more?

Commander Zaius said...

This is because their citizens understand that an educated society is a safer, more productive and more prosperous society.

Not anymore, educated citizens ask uncomfortable questions and even worse, demand real answers.

okjimm said...

if you think government is corrupt.... just check the private sector.... would you want the same people who run wall street run your school? Would you want BP to pave your roads? Or MacDonalds pick up your garbage?

Hey, I kinda like that, McGarbage! Sounds like a GOP debate... hey, can I get a happy meal with the empty rhetoric?

Shaw Kenawe said...

Or Enron to provide your utility needs?

Mordechai said...

I wonder what would have happened had Grover Norquist's forefathers come over on the Mayflower?

If they acted as unchristianly greedy as Grover usually does, they would have made the voyage in stocks.