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Originally Posted by Derwood
you prefer the capitalism version of wealth redistribution (i.e. all wealth flows upwards, creating a small, elite upper class and an enormous, underprivileged lower class)?
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Absolutely. Unless you are disabled, my success doesn't mean that I owe you a living, and it doesn't mean that the government has the right to take the money I earned and give it to you.
I'll take the lifestyle I've achieved by my efforts over being supported by the government any day. I started from nowhere about 35 years ago and have done relatively well. I've seen others in similar situations do well. Those who thought the government owed them? Not so well.
---------- Post added at 09:43 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:39 AM ----------
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Originally Posted by Baraka_Guru
Do you consider subsidies socialist as well? You know, like the U.S. farm bills. Redistributing wealth to farmers. Those things that Republicans as much as Democrats are responsible for.
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As I've written before, all subsidies should be eliminated. Every single one.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Baraka_Guru
Truth be told, there are a lot of things going on in the U.S. that could be considered socialist (or at least considered as having socialist roots). But people aren't aware of them in that way. These are things that were established long before Obama took office...and many long before he was even born.
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I'm not a fan of the socialist actions taken by FDR (Social Security) or LBJ (Social Security expansion, Great Society) either.
---------- Post added at 09:53 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:43 AM ----------
No? From the Wikipedia article about socialism:
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Socialism is an economic and political theory advocating public or common ownership and cooperative management of the means of production and allocation of resources
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That's exactly what Obama did with GM. The government nationalized GM, threw out the CEO and put management Obama selected in his place.
Also, from the online Encyclopedia Britannica article about socialism
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/...1569/socialism
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System of social organization in which private property and the distribution of income are subject to social control; also, the political movements aimed at putting that system into practice.
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That's exactly what Obama tried with a number of Wall St executives. He publicly stated several times that he was going to make the executives give back their bonuses, to the point that he was going to write retroactive law if necessary to do that. He only gave up after Congress refused to go along with that stunt.
I'll agree Obama isn't a socialist 100% of every day, but he definitely has socialist leanings. If Congress didn't keep him in check, we would have even more of his socialist agenda to worry about.