socialism

interesting Article about Venezuela compared to Greece. http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/may/06/venezuela-greece-economic-crisis what are your thoughts?

Obama is a socialist because he wants to steal your money to pay doctors for the health of others. Conservatives like Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck are socialist because they want to steal your money to pay soldiers for protection of others. I don't want my hard-earned money to be spent...

we now have several topic in this subforum where we hear about the evil things this movement has brought to south america, especially Venezuela. i wonder if people around here know if they also had some possitive impact. for example, the Venezuelan Missions that provide food, heatlhcare and...

The reason I ask is because I recognize that I have a lack of knowledge on many aspects of politics and economics, and this seems a crucial aspect. So it all started with a conversation between me and a friend. This friend of mine is a socialist and I greeted him with this joke I have about an...

Why should I embrace Socialism? This is a serious questions to which I'd appreciate even handed answers please.

Just saw a link to this website and i thought it was an intresting read, essentially its a website that criticizes modern Capitalism but, suprise suprise not written by Communists but national-socialists. The website is called Antikap.nu , and while its in Swedish i think Google-translate does...

What is fascism? What is socialism? Is it possible to define either without generating outrage, contemptuous ridicule, and accusations of ignorance? Is it possible to define either in just a few simple sentences? Bonus points if you can manage to do this without examples. No points at all if...

Noam Chomsky describes himself as a "libertarian Socialist" But isn't individualist collectivism an oxymoron?

I'm not a big fan of the PO in some ways. I think they give crappy service and I think most of them are overpaid. I hear they are also losing money. At the same time I find they are a necessity. Who else would deliver your letter across the country for .44 cents? Do they not collect enough...

I'm writing this OP for two major reasons: (1) To see if this idea of mine is new at all (hence the scare quotes in the title), since a lot of ideas one has tends to be a re-hash of some old idea that you just haven't heard about. (2) To hear some good criticism against the idea. Most of the...

Socialism: I do not think that word means what conservatives think it means.

Really? I've watched Fox News for a few days now, and he's been called a socialist at least once per hour. Obviously, this reflects a rather significant percentage of the views on him. Yet I don't recall even conservatives here saying so. So if anyone thinks he is a socialist, by all means post it.

Do ANY of you Obama supporters even begin to grasp the damage Obama is about to do to this country? The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is projecting that his current spending and proposed plan of action will run up a deficit of $1.75 TRILLION dollars by October of this year. And...

Linky. I liked how when Beck got an actual socialist on the show, he was a complete jerk: Ohh, a stunning point! Linky. (The whole ending was particularly dickish) So they will yell at us about how we are going down the road to socialism, and when a socialist is on the show they will tell...

This question has been asked ever since the Bolsheviks seized power in Russia in 1917 and transformed Czarist Russia into the Soviet Union. Although Lenin, Trotsky, Stalin and all the other communist leaders claimed they were aiming to transform Russia into a socialist society, many political...

This is a spin off from a thread in the politics forum. Here's the pertinent exchange:

Joe the Plumber staged a nice gotcha on Obama and got his fifteen minutes of fame. The taste has been too good to give up, however. He's joined the McCain campaign trail in Ohio: More where that came from at the link. Odd how an unlicensed plumber, who's name isn't Joe, who isn't planning to...

Is Obama a socialist? Are his policies socialist? He doesn't seem to be. AFAIK, he hasn't advocated policies of nationalization or collectivization of industries. Of course I know there is more to socialism than collectivization. I think this demogougery needs to be addressed. I'd like to have a...

It's good to see that Paulson is following the same path as recommended by the Communists following the Wall Street crash, nationalising the banking sector to the tune of $250 billion....... Whatever next? A universal health-care system? A state broadcaster? You pinko liberals you ;)

I've read books by Conservatives, Libertarians, and Liberals, but I've never read one arguing for straight-out Socialism. So I decided to look at the library for some books... and they were all really really old. Like the newest one was at least twenty years old. I tried looking at the websites...

Well, maybe residents of the former communist nations, but why should Venezuelans be expected to learn from history. Article Excerpt: The lines for basic foods at subsidized prices are paradoxical for an oil-rich nation that in many ways is a land of plenty. Shopping malls are bustling, new car...

“Hands off” economies include forms of capitalism such as Laissez-faire capitalism as well as libertarianism, where the government plays no role in the regulation of the actions of market entities including corporations as well as no way to prevent or remedy market failures. There are many flaws...

started to prevent a derail from a separate thread. discuss. :)

So, apparently, some people think the Green Party is somehow not socialist. What possible characteristics of socialism are they lacking? They want to establish a universal welfare program, outlaw salaries more than ten times minimum wage (although, if they get their way, minimum wage will be...

This thread is about the question: What is the right balance between the free market and government intervention to solve any of a number of issues? All political opinions are welcome: liberals, conservatives, libertarians, socialists, libertarian socialists, anarchists... I want to hear your...

I was reading the BBC site this morning "President Hugo Chavez has pledged to nationalise key Venezuelan companies, as part of plans to transform the country into a full socialist state." And I was wondering why, someone who plans to use the full power of the state to gather power into the...

With Hugo Chavez's most recent electoral victory, comparisons between Fidel Castro and Chavez abound. Granted, they're both socialist/communist Latin American leaders, and they both staged coups (one successful and one failed), but how much do they really have in common? One was elected, and one...

The 90% of the World thread's break off into estate tax and wealth got me thinking about where people stand on the above. My thinking is along these lines. The human desire is not to work but to play. In order to get people to work, we must pay them. In order to get people to fill necessary...

I just read "Heaven on Earth" which is a history/criticism of socialism. All of the reasons cited for why a controlled economy seem to make sense, and there are alot of historical examples. But, when I read the Amazon.com reviews, a few readers complain about the omission of the Scandanavian...

We don't need to resort to wildly unrealistic hypotheticals to compare the abilities of the free market vs. socialism to make a prosperous society. All we need to do is look at a real example of history: Plymouth Plantation. All of this is based on Gov. William Bradford's book, Of Plymouth...