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socialism for dummies- part 2: "government ownership of industry and companies"

 ** This is the second part of "Socialism for Dummies", to read the first part click here. **

Socialism: \sō-shə-li-zəm\, noun-

1. Any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods.
2. A system or condition of society in which the means of production are owned and controlled by the state.
3. A stage of society in Marxist theory transitional between capitalism and communism and distinguished by unequal distribution of goods and pay according to work done.

It’s pretty clear that socialism is defined as the overtaking of a business or industry by either the public or government. What is also clear is the fact that the current administration is trying their hardest to lead us down the path to becoming a socialist nation, which is evident by the Obama administration’s wish to take over any company they feel is too large or not being managed as well as they would like to see. It violates every rule of capitalism, and takes us down a path that can only lead to the demise of our country if it is not stopped. But wanting to control privately-owned American companies isn’t the only socialist ideology currently in place or being considered in this country.

One of the major topics in the past few years, especially during the 2008 presidential election, was the topic of nationalizing health care—or to put it simply, “socialized healthcare”. Many liberals believe that healthcare is a right, and that if we bring universal or free healthcare to this country, that those less fortunate will be able to afford healthcare that wasn’t available to them before. They forget, however, that healthcare is not right.

In fact, there is great irony in saying that everyone should have the right to free or universal healthcare—socialized healthcare, while providing health services to the needy, actually takes away the rights of others. The individual rights of taxpayers are violated, as they now have to use their own money to pay for others. Do you really want to pay for the medical costs for those who choose to smoke, are overly obese, ect? Or how about the loss of freedoms when the government chooses to restrict or raise taxes on fast food, cigarettes, alcohol, automobiles, or other activities and products that may cause negative health effects? They have to make up the money somewhere, don’t they?

Do we really want to see headlines in this country like those in Canada do?

“Kidney Patients Die as Costly Dialysis Machines Lie Idle” – The Times, July 26th, 1993

“Too Old to be Cured of Cancer”- The Times, August 16th, 1993

“Send Cancer Patients to U.S., Alberta MD’s Urge”- January 18th, 2003

“Ontario Government Report Calls For Up To 1,000 More MD’s”- Toronto Star, December 3rd, 1999

Or the best one, a headline from the Canadian Press on the 14th of June, 1991:

“For Dogs, A Scan Can Be Arranged Within 24 Hours. Humans Wait in Pain, Dogs Don’t”

Is that really something we want in this country? I don’t think so. It’s clearly an act of socialism, as the government is taking over a whole industry.

Now on to other forms of socialism. Several things, most that many people don’t notice, have socialist ideologies behind them in one way or another in this country. Lets quickly point out a few of those:

• Airports. While airlines are privately owned (at least for the time now, I’m sure Obama and his boys will get their hands on a few here soon), the airports they fly into aren’t—public airports in this country are government owned. The government then decides which airlines are allowed to fly into an airport and the frequency at which they will be allowed to do so.
• Certain tax credits. Buy a hybrid car? Line the roof of your house with solar panels? Chances are you got a tax credit from the government for this. It’s their way of saying what they want to see done in this country, by enticing Americans to buy certain items or do certain things in order to receive money. You do what they want to see done, you get money.
• Bailouts. I think this one is pretty clear; giving certain companies money from the government is their way of investing government (taxpayer) money in a company, which is a loose version of government ownership of a company, which is socialism. (And yes, Bush did this too, I don’t agree with it when it was done under him either.)

So there’s a brief look at “Socialism for Dummies”. People can deny that socialism exist in this country all they want, but the facts are there. Socialistic ideas have been planted in this country for years now, but the current administration up in Washington wants to take these ideals even further. Is Capitalism gone in this country for good? Well, that might be a stretch. Is it slowly dwindling away? Yes. The problem with socialist ideals is that even if they don’t work, they are near impossible to take away—after a while people will see them as being “rights” which they are owed from the government.

The truth is, Capitalism is the greatest wealth generating system known to man. Yes, not everyone's needs can be met through Capitalism, but no other system can either. The United States is known for being the greatest country in the world; with people willing to risk their lives to live here for a taste of the “American Dream”...why ruin that by drifting away from the economic fundamentals that we have built this country on for over the last two hundred years plus?

**You can find the full article here at The Raging Elephant website.**

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