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Originally Posted by raditz
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Yeah that's pretty incomplete. Socialism is when the government runs the production AND distribution of wealth. But that's only the economic side. Even just looking at that aspect, we are nowhere close to that. Regulating and taxing corporations is a means to protect the people, not a means to pulls all corporations together to create one government run corporation. Things like federal healthcare are a means to provide a base amount of care to all people, not to destroy all competition.
Here is what I think is fundamentally wrong with the arguments against nationalized services and regulations:
1. Money is not the most important thing. Food, shelter, education, and care are much more important. What the right is doing is proposing that we put an individual's wealth as the means to get these more important things, but with a great divide between the upper, middle, and lower classes, some people get royally screwed by this. With our focus on individual wealth instead of societal wealth, our country cannot grow. If you live in a major city, you have probably seen homeless people, drug dealers, and thugs. These people are a burden on everyone, and it is in the best interest of everyone who lives in the city to see less of them. Putting more wealth in the individual will not get rid of these problems, and nor will it prevent them in the future. Creating worthwhile social programs may not get rid of them now, but with better public education and better opportunity these problems can be decreased in the long run, and that is in the best interest of everyone.
2. Corporations are not people. I don't know why everyone feels the need to defend corporate rights as the rights of an individual when it comes to taxation and regulation. Regulations protect the REAL PEOPLE who are employed by the corporations and who rely on corporate services. Deregulation only opens more opportunity for the corporate fucking-over of the small guy. How many "Joe Sixpacks" got screwed over by Enron, which was caused by a handful of people? How many "Joe the Plumbers" are being screwed by AIG while AIG is throwing extravagant parties on government bailout money? How many people are screwed daily by drug companies who are allowed patents on drugs, eliminating competition and allowing inflated prices?
A government with its mind on the well being of the people is much better than one with its mind on the well being of corporations, in my opinion. Trickle down effect be-damned, people are greedy, especially once they get to the top, and there's too many people that need more than just a few drops from that trickle.