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Originally Posted by roachboy
there's no contradiction between capitalism and democratic socialism. the latter is a policy direction that stabilizes the former in particular directions which are shaped by particular conceptions of what outcomes are socially desirable.
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Exactly. Social democracy has no desire to dismantle the capitalist system or to foment a socialist revolution. (This is exactly why so many socialists criticize it.) Many Americans don't understand this. They see socialism and immediately think anti-capitalism (read: anti-freedom).
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american conservatives apparently support class war. they may pretend it's something else, but it isn't. so they endorse policies that exacerbate class war. social democrats tend to think class war destabilizing. for example.
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It is. You recently posted poverty numbers in the U.S. somewhere. It think the number was 1 in 7 (1 in 5 children).
Depending on the measure, Canada's poverty rate is 1 in 10 (low-income cutoff, aka LICO) or 1 in 20 (basic-needs poverty). So while Canada does have challenges with regard to poverty, there isn't this same sense of class war within our politics. Even if our conservatives try to align with neo-liberalism, they usually have a countering force to answer to.
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Originally Posted by Tully Mars
You don't understand the US at all. It's all or nothing. It's back or white, red state or blue, conservative or liberal. It's all right or wrong and whatever side you're on... it's the other sides that's wrong.
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This is the problem. It's also ridiculous because the reality is that the U.S., in practice, isn't so cut and dried. As mentioned elsewhere, even Reagan adopted "socialist" policies. People need to be reasonable.