Ed Prediction,

[Stacyhs]

People work hard, accumlulte some money, and they want to keep it. How shocking.

I don't think we're all playing with the same cards here. First, you have to define what is meant by "socialism" so we can all agree we're talking about the same thing.

Are we talking about this socialism: a political or society where all the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole.

Or are we talking about Democratic Socialism: the government should provide a range of basic services to the public, such as health care, education, and other social services for free or at a significant discount.

If we're talking about pure socialism, as in the first example, that's more akin to what we think of as Communism and included such countries as the USSR, and cold war era Hungary, E. Germany, and Poland. But if we're talking about Democratic Socialism, we're talking more about countries like Sweden, Canada, Ireland, Germany, and Switzerland.

As far as the old saying, "if a young man isn't a socialist at twenty he has no heart, and if he's still a socialist at forty he has no brains," that's had many forms including socialism being replaced by republican (not the GOP), democrat (again, not the US political party) which is what Adams actually used.

But to get back to this:

People work hard, accumlulte some money, and they want to keep it. How shocking.

No, it's not shocking at all. It's human nature. Most of us are greedy by nature. We want things and we want to pay as little as possible for them. As we get older and accumulate things, the stronger that tends to become. That's why even the very wealthy will find every loophole in the tax laws they can or even, like Trump, actually cheat/commit fraud to keep as much as they can. But we still want things like our Medicare, roads, libraries, fire departments, police departments, public schools, etc that are paid for out of those taxes. You know...things that are actually examples of socialism.

 

[Stacyhs]

You need a balance;total socialism. ...total government control over the economy...has failed miserably whenever tried. You need a strong safety net,but still allow Market Forced to dominate.

I agree. PURE socialism has pretty much been a disaster; it goes against human nature. It works fine is small communities where everyone knows everyone else and most people are somehow related by blood or marriage. That's because there's a self-serving interest in taking car of each other; it's a safety net. But it falls apart when people no longer have those personal bonds because we tend not to care about what we don't personally have a stock in.

But I noitce how some here just bristle if anybody suggests that socialism has it's weak points and failing.

Really? Where? I haven't seen that at all. Can you cite some examples?

 

[Armitage72]

Incidentally, the Dilbert storyline that started yesterday has Wally declaring himself to be a Socialist, showing that Scott Adams understands it as well as anything else. Wally has basically announced that he isn't going to work and everyone else in the company needs to support him. I'm not sure how that's different from normal Wally though.

 

[The Great Zaganza]

we can all be glad that Scott Adams became a cartoonist and not a cult leader.
But it seems he is regretting his career choice

 

[Susheel]

But I noitce how some here just bristle if anybody suggests that socialism has it's weak points and failing.

Really? I have been on this forum for nearly two decades and one thing I was guaranteed if I posted anything that even had an inkling of socialism or some critique of unregulated capitalist expansion was responses to the effect that I did not value individual freedom, or that my response was outdated 60s propaganda.