And in the US military everyone pledges to support one another no matter what. For one thing, the rich and powerful invest heavily in political activity to promote their interests and block progressive reforms. And every capitalist country has fire departments, police departments, and libraries. Today, We Should Do the Same for the Global South. Last week, the Left hit Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney with the supposedly shaming accusation that he wants to cut funding for these state and local functions. And, of course, when other presidents use collective funds to bomb and rebuild other countries or to prop up Wall Street and the Fossil Fuel industry, suddenly socialism is great! This is hardly "socialism" because if it were, voters would never have any say at all in what police and firemen do. For too long now, fire departments across the United States have been socialist organizations, resulting in taxes on the American people. Librariesproduce (enable would be a better term)an informed and entertained society. Oh, and for the official record, the NAZI Party was NOT socialist. The left wants us to believe that paying for teachers, firefighters and police is a federal responsibility. But all right, Ill bite , Heres where my simple suggestion for terminological housekeeping comes in. It funnels billions of federal tax dollars to state and local police departmentsas well as park police, college police and other law enforcement agencies. To understand what is meant by socialism and its contrast term individualism, then, you must first clarify which dimension or phase ofasocietys process of production you have in mind. For one thing, the rich and powerful invest heavily in political activity to promote their interests and block progressive reforms. Additionally we host events, provide commentary for traditional media shows, and give speeches to groups of all sizes. Ever since Karl Marx invented socialism and wrote the Communist Manifesto (which was mainly about socialism), socialism has meant getting rid of capitalism. Please check to see if you are reading a blog, opinion column, or academically viable information before disputing this fact. . He comes to the position with a purely law enforcement and administrative background . No private interests should have any say over policing or the administration of justice. This includes personalizing content and advertising. Why? Again, then, it seems that where matters political are concerned, we are all of us socialist, be we republic-name-checking Republicans or democracy-name-checking Democrats. We can abbreviate that by saying we do and decide some things individually and some things collaboratively, or socially, with the size or scope of the collaborative group in the latter case varying according to the activity. Academics who study politics for a living often fall into this trap. Take Ronald Reagan, for example, who like Huey P. Longs son Senator Russell Long loved Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs) because they made company-owners of employees. At present it seems only Senators Sanders and Warren offer that same answer, while only Senator Sanders seems able to make it happen. This is, of course, completely immoral and antithetical to the principles of a free and just society. No. Achieving an optimal mix should be an important goal of the government. The theory is that under this system, labor cannot be exploited. Obamacare has increased health insurance coverage, partially through the (contested) expansion of Medicaid. An article detailing the recent surge in the popularity of socialism was teed up this way by the brands social media editor: If youre against socialism, dont drive on public roads or call 911! At a fire or medical incident, most police officers perform only security or very basic first aid. The state acts on that belief by entitling all Alaskans to dividends from the Alaska Permanent Fund a sort of oil-based Andrew Yang Freedom Dividend for all Alaskans. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts. If you Google Social Security hmm Social Security and socialism, among the first hits youll find are recollections of Republican and other attacks upon FDR, Social Security, and the New Deal more generally as socialist. Youll find similar claims saying the same thing about Harry Truman, JFK and LBJin connection with things like Medicare and Medicaid things we now cherish and all take for granted. The Obama administration has been very clear about keeping the status quo when it comes to taxpayer-funded fire departments. After all, if our country wasalready at least partly socialist, then all we wouldhave to do iskeep gradually expanding government. In fact none of the government programs in America are socialist.Socialism is not when the government does stuff.These are social programs that exist within the capitalist frameworkAt best if you have enough of these programs you'd be left with what's called a social democracyA social democracy is a form of capitalism that advocates for intervening in economic and social matters to alleviate the worst of capitalism's inequities.But it's primary mode of production, that is, it's primary method of producing and distributing goods and resources are still owned by private interests.It's just that some of those goods and resources are redistributed among the working classSocialism is a mode of production which advocates for all the workers controlling the production and distribution of goods and resources.This is not to say social programs are badThe fire department can and will obviously exist in a socialist society.But the fire department can and does also exist within a capitalist society.If we seek to have an honest discussion about these topics it's important to separate specific institutions as examples of socialism or capitalism and focus instead on who controls how those resources are produced and distributed. It might be helpful, then, to sort some things out sos to get clearer on what were all talking about when we talk about socialism.. This article first appeared on townhall.com. They are infrastructure that exists in every country regardless of socioeconomic framework. The money is meant to help disadvantaged schools. Many conservatives argue that the federal government, even when well intentioned, should stay out of state and local education decisions. According to a widely noted 2014 study by two political scientists, the political dominance of the wealthy is now so pronounced that average citizens exercise near zero influence over government policymaking. If anything disappoints me even more, its when communication completely breaks down because of the failure to use concrete terminology. If we feel we must use such words, though, and especially if we must retain socialism, then let us proceed as follows. Socialist Programs like Medicaid, welfare, social security, can and do exist in capitalist countries. They simply add more private sector decision-makers to the productive decision-making process. FACT: Most Americans never use the socialized services of the fire department. Change). Why don't they just call it the collective? Furthermore under proper separation of powers, these functions should be carried out at the state and local level, not the federal level. And because all of those purportedly socialist programs have been won without fundamentally challenging private property, there would be no need for a decisive confrontation with the owners of capital and their political allies. Fire departments could be considered a socialist program if the government was only made up of, and meant to represent, the proletariat. Theyre not. Whats ironic is that the writer of the Big Think article, Paul Ratner, actually attempts to make this distinction himself, citing a description of socialism from Jacobin, a socialist magazine: In their guide, the writers and editors of Jacobin also try to dispel some of the confusion related to socialism. Subscribe today and get a yearlong print and digital subscription. The federal government doesnt pay for teachers, firefighters or policemen.. Should it be money suppliers, whose shareholding tracks their money contributions as in those capital coops we know as corporations? Yet there is reason to believe this is at least partly because Americans are pretty much clueless as to what socialism is. We all know the answers to these questions. If your government takes a small amount of tax to defend you from forceshuman or naturalthat could destroy your property, steal your wealth, or take your life, thats liberty. Heres what I mean in a bit more detail. The military, police, and justice systems should be completely public institutions. There is no need to explore this issue any further.. This is not the case. For it is possible, as we shall see, to be more socialist on one or two dimensions while being more individualist along the other dimension or dimensions and, of course, vice versa. I've seen some attempt to say that universities are socialist institutions due to tuitions, enrollment and profits from sports events being central to their continued operation. Ill concede your point about public libraries, but the police and fire departments are most definitely not socialist institutions. This is the famous Dictatorship of the Proletariat. The labor sector has total control of the economy. You see, you've already been living your life surrounded by socialist institutions and you didn't even realize it until now! Capitalist production is just production that produces further inputs for production, which is why it is not really a contrast term to socialism, and is how things like state capitalism are possible but more of this presently. Already on our list? If we do not know what a word means, or the meaning is amorphous, then comparative logic becomes impossible. Those fares pay for maintenance, but your taxes are supposed to do that since the system technically belongs to the entire city. It displays either ignorance, lazy thinking, or wanton dishonesty. If a private fund manager steals his clients pension contributions, he goes to jail. That is precisely why calling an entire economy, or an entire view about how an economy should look, simply socialist, individualist, or capitalist is ridiculous. Public-sector unions could play a key role in this endeavor, organizing both the providers and users of public services to radically transform the administrative structures of government. Only a united public effort can adequately defend a whole nation or territory from invasion or defeat a dangerous enemy abroad. This is an indoctrination factory and a recipe for disaster. A week later, three lions encountered the group and chased the men off. They operate according to democratic principles of access and distribution, providing services to all regardless of ones ability to pay. They would be one of the most important institutions in any socialist society worthy of the name. The DSA is a political movement with adherents in both the current U.S. Congress and fourteen state legislatures. Bail out shortfalls in state and local treasuries is not a core function of the federal government. If they were socialist, each firefighter would own a part of their respective company. and our And as it happens, different questions that implicate our moral and political values come up in connection with each. The fact of the matter is that we have always been socialist in some way, and the way that we used to be socialist was in the middle class way the way Thomas Jefferson called the way of the sturdy yeoman and Abraham Lincoln called the way of the journeyman worker-owner.. Language. Key questions about that state activity always need to be asked: does it reinforce or undermine the power of those who own capital? Because itdoes. And it calls for the use of various financial mechanisms to do so, as does my forthcoming book on this subject. Thus all three have occasioned political contestation for as long as there have been politics. But many of the biggest programs over the last few decades do nothing to strengthen the power of workers. Jay Inslee's vaccine mandate. The great American economist and social thinker Henry George, like the great Revolutionary War era patriot Thomas Paine, thought what Ill call the Alaska Principle could be generalized. The minority who lose in a vote will not get their way economically. Its also how theyre able to conflate their own interests with a larger public or national interest under a capitalist system, theres some truth to their claim. The list goes on and on. Sure, you can have personal and privateproperty, but there is no private ownership of any business or industry in a socialist society. No centralized Department of Education. Admirable goals at the time, but both could be better handled by the private sector today. I saw Hasan Piker from TYT repeat this in his Politicon debate and it's one of those narratives that refuses to die. I will concede, though, that often even some of the emergency services could be better handled by private institutions. And still others involve the vast apparatus of coercion and force (police departments, the FBI, the CIA, the military, courts, prisons, and jails). The temptation to loot that pot of gold is overwhelming. Change), You are commenting using your Facebook account. It's a purposeful lie or a lie repeated by newbie Leftist that are just parroting what they've heard from other Leftists. In fact, you could say that these redefining tactics happen intentionally for the very reason of defeating logic: Sure but thats not what it means to me.. What determines whether we choose to pursue an activity more individually or more socially? Change), You are commenting using your Twitter account. These direct forms of influence are not the only way that powerful interests shape government action. Interestingly, now that Yangs out of contention for President this year, there are no outright Resource Socialists running for President. So they are capitalist entities brought into being by socialist means. Use a private highway and you pay a small electronically collected fee, just as most public tolls are collected now. Economic power is political power, and under capitalism the owners of capital will always have the capacity to undermine popular democracy no matter whos in Congress or the White House. It can be a dirty trick used to end an argument under false pretenses, and one that inherently carries confirmation bias as well: If the definition cannot be agreed upon, then I must be correct in my assessment. Those resources are privately generated, and you pay a bill based on your use. Who presently benefits cui bono? That shouldnt be an excuse for more socialism. If the government takes large chunks of your wealth to fund whomever it wants to please, thats socialism. When literally three Americans literally own more wealth than literally the bottom half of our citizenry, as Senator Sanders seems to be the sole Presidential candidate regularly to point out, isnt it clear whose socialism ours is? Fire departments are a service associated with the well-being of society and not a means of production. This would entail not only creating directly democratic bodies that supplant or complement representative institutions like Congress, but dramatically overhauling state agencies and administrative structures. Why is a public library socialist, but police and fire departments aren't? Through their political spending and the influence it buys, they have been able to shape tax and other policies for their own benefit, an advantage reinforced by favorable judicial decisions (e.g. All economies, and all policy positions and proposals, are essentially mixes of social and individual of public and private along each of the dimensions associated with each phase of the production process inputs, outputs, and the transformation of the former into the latter. These are also the kinds of questions that are handled by the Third Wayphilosophy. Because fighting invaders or a necessary foreign war requires a national public effort. And things could hardly be otherwise, for all productive economic activity proceeds on the basis of rules, and rules are the province of collective decision-making politics., Second, note that Bernie Sanders, whose frontrunner status in seeking the US Presidency is what has occasioned the socialist renewal, does not call himself a socialist or even a democratic socialist. He calls himself a Democratic Socialist. And as the capital letters indicate, thats not a generic predicate term, its a proper name as different in grammatical form from mere socialist as Robert Barone is from robber baron.. Well, one way to start finding out is to do what any third grader could do and what pundits for some reason seem yet to have bothered to do look it up! In some ways its nonetheless regrettable, however, that we tend to focus on outputs alone. The critical difference is that these profits are not passed on to "workers" (students) who make up the body of the school and the students do not have a prominent role in how the school's money is spent, that role belongs to the administration. Every day the staff of Intellectual Takeout come to work eager to do their part to restore and improve our great nation. The 2009 stimulus plan likely saved the country from another Great Depression, but it was inadequate to the scale of the crisis and weighted in favor of tax cuts for businesses who simply pocketed the cash instead of hiring new workers. Are Mike Bloomberg and Donald Trump? When someone repeats "Do you like roads, police, fire departments etc." Socialism, no matter what you learned in High School, is a labor inspired revolution aimed at defeating the class barriers and wealth inequality created by capitalism. Now Bernie Sanders claims libraries, fire departments and police departments are all SOCIALIST institutions as he struggles to explain his politics 'When you go to your public library, when. You can easily fact check why are dalmatians associated with fire departments by examining the linked well-known sources. Socialism, either through state-control/regulatory bodies/workers councils, carries out the will of the workers to equitably redistribute the wealth created by industries. Before he became a founding father of the United States, Benjamin Franklin established one of America's first volunteer fire departments. Yellowstone: The Hidden Propaganda in Television and Movies, How to Cultivate a Marriage That Will Help Your Child Succeed. Transfer mechanisms? Was Reagan, who spent billions in public (public) money on national (national) defense, and whose tax code took 50% from the top bracket, socialist?, I dunno you tell me. Why not just name and discuss policies rather than dropping vague ism names? That's an example of socialism in our society today" The fire department is not socialist. This it does under the rubrics of distribution and inequality. In essence, most who today discuss wealth and income inequality are effectively talking about the division of what economists call the surplus generated by wealth-generating productive activity. No government education loans. They were hardline fascists in every way. Dont be too sure. For the most part, yes. There is a postage fee. How the Nazis Exploited the Reichstag Fire to Launch a Reign of Terror, In Bosnia, the End of War Has Not Brought Peace, G. M. Tams Wasnt Hungarys Last Marxist, A Rare Book Scandal Provides a Warning About Private Equity, Capitalism Makes Everyone Bend to Its Will, Rich and Poor Alike. It also turns out, as it happens, that it is impossible to be either 100% individualistic or 100% socialistic along any of these three dimensions. 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