Obama's Economy

Could you “Obama’s a socialist” people give a lesson in socialism? What are socialism’s failures in practice?

I see people saying that he has a socialist agenda or words to that effect and I and others accuse you of not knowing what socialism is. So enlighten me.

Socialism is a way of looking at problems and solutions.

Typically, it involves government control of some or all resources for the supposed betterment of society as a whole. Mind you, I did not say ownership.

Socialist typically believe that everybody’s needs can be met, and everyone’s potential can be filled without restricting freedom. This is fine in theory.

There ends up being 2 problems in real life. For the system to function properly, everybody needs to live up to their own potential. Everybody must contribute to society what they can. There is no room for lazy people in a true socialist society. If this happens, then you have a group of people that feel they are being taken advantage of by another group of people.

The next problem. Who decides what is good for society as a whole. Is it the group of self serving politicians in Washington? The problem comes down to greed and corruption of power, which begins to lead to tyrannical road.

There is no truly socialist country in this world. There are various implementations of socialism in many places, including the US. Many we agree to, as a benefit to society. Police, Firemen, education. These were typically set up in small areas for the betterment of a city or town, not the responsibility of the federal government.

So is Obama a socialist? Yes, to a degree. He does believe that society has a responsibility to itself, and that it is for the central government to decide how to implement it. He is not alone in this. Most presidents for the last 30 years, and a number of them for the last 100 years, have been trying to bring socialist plans to the Federal government (SSI, medicare/cade, welfare) we argued about it at the time of implementation, but now have come to accept it as a society, next is health care, then what after that. It all comes down to control of the people for he betterment of society.

I quote from Thomas Jefferson

“I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them. “