84 comments

  1. Franklin D. Roosevelt: Socialist or “Champion of Freedom”?

    Democracy has disappeared in several other great nations—disappeared not because the people of those nations disliked democracy, but because they had grown tired of unemployment and insecurity, of seeing their children hungry while they sat helpless in the face of government confusion, government weakness,—weakness through lack of leadership in government. Finally, in desperation, they chose to sacrifice liberty in the hope of getting something to eat. We in America know that our own democratic institutions can be preserved and made to work. But in order to preserve them, we need to act together, to meet the problems of the Nation boldly, and to prove that the practical operation of democratic government is equal to the task of protecting the security of the people.

    Franklin D. Roosevelt, April 1938

    by Roosevelt Institute / Friday, 20 April 2012 / Published in Blog, Economy & Growth, Franklin & Eleanor, Politics

    1. And guess who said this about socialism: “We are socialists, we are enemies of today’s capitalistic economic system for the exploitation of the economically weak, with its unfair salaries, with its unseemly evaluation of a human being according to wealth and property instead of responsibility and performance, and we are all determined to destroy this system under all conditions.” — Adolf Hitler

    2. @Jetstom Jetstom You do know that Hitler was a master propagandist, and often mouthed the propaganda borrowed from other ideologies in order to win support, right? How much do you know about the rise of the Nazis? Or do you just have a paper thin grasp of history and political science?

  2. Because they are more rational, sympathetic and mature, they are intouch with nature, life and other people.
    Edit: surge in solidarity
    Poverty is immoral and none economically viable

  3. Scandinavian countries have the best quality of life on this planet. They pay lots of taxes and reap the benefits by doing so. Healthcare and decent housing should be a right and not a privilege.

    1. Christopher Jennings Now, the Swedish tax system is far from perfect. The personal dividend tax rate is 30 percent, above the OECD average of 24 percent, and the progressive individual income tax has a combined top rate of 60 percent. The ITCI reflects these policies and ranks Sweden 20th out of 35 countries on personal income taxes.
      The top tax rate for millionaires in the USA 🇺🇸 is 37%.
      I doubt Bernie’s plans include adding another 23% percent, that would be political suicide.

    2. New Zealand moved from a Scandinavian style social democratic model somewhat toward the US neoliberal model in the 1980s and 1990s.
      However it preserved public health and most of its public education. It gained much needed freedom in the market places but sacrificed much, including ability to coordinate long term infrastructure planning. Utility (power, teleco) charges for consumers rose considerably to pay for corporate profit margins. Housing cries ensued following government withdrawal from social housing.
      Repeated tax cuts were quickly absorbed leaving most citizens no better off a merely year or two later. Their lasting effect was mostly to starve Govt of revenue and to drive down the quality of services the Govt provides to its citizens- which just fueled calls from the right wing to further remove Govt from such provision.
      Worst, the promised trickle down effect never eventuated. Increased poverty, including the appearance of until then non existent street beggars, became part of NZ way of life. NZ has dropped way down the tables in terms of its standard of living from where it stood in 1960s, in the top 5 worldwide.
      Hats off to Scandinavia for saying no to the neoliberal lie.

    1. @robearl1983 Russia made up the WMD lie then destroyed Iraq? This is a joke???
      The United States invented the lies of WMD, and then destroyed Iraq. The USA destroyed half the world on false pretexts.

    2. @robearl1983 The “Original” everything from the 80’s and 90’s was the best, can we just say that? Every single re-make of a movie they tried to resurrect from the dead has failed miserably. Hollywood can’t even make movies anymore.

  4. People love socialism because at the moment the rich get socialism, getting bailouts and subsidies, while the poor get harsh capitalism. The poor just want what the rich get.

    1. Exactly….itd be one thing if we weren’t being taxed but theyre taking our money just to give it to people who don’t need it…. shoot some of them have so much money they don’t even want anymore stolen money

    2. @Curunir what the capitalists have stolen our money and decided we dont deserve any of it….u do realize a piece of pie is better than zero pie correct??

    3. @Curunir like Im not on welfare but Id MUCH rather my money go to some single mom with four kids instead of towards helping someone buy their fourth yatch…I mean the government is stealing my money regardless…Id prefer they help someone with it instead of helping out some banker who’s probably some evil prick who spends all day trying to come up with a new scheme to swidle some large group of people

    4. You are delusional if you think you are going to get it from Socialism comrade. You want what the rich have, then work hard like they did and use your head instead of waiting for the government to bail you out.

  5. Kids today don’t want poor people to die because they can’t afford medical care ?
    😂 that’s crazy next they will say that everyone was created equal or something 😆

    1. @B Cronic You can look it up literally type who’s the number one country in medical breakthroughs, and it’s us, and it’s because of capitalism. Now you’re talking about prescription drug prices tho, and yeah I’ll agree with you, but prescription drug prices have dropped under Trump so

    2. @B Cronic And I don’t think it’s making it fair at all raising everyone’s taxes the amount they’d need to especially for the middle class and if it was Bernie’s plan to even take away private insurance too then yeah it would be bad really for the economy and for the quality of our healthcare

    3. @T Boned I am not poor, the people on welfair pass before workers and these losers vote for Trudeau, Couillard, bullshiters liberals

    4. @FiredFromScanning FiredFromScanning I pay my income taxes and people on welfair pass before me??? I gone move in Spain with the money I made in Canada. When you do not make business with banks in Spain, you’re OK.

    1. @Pierre Bahl
      The country’s where the people have the best standard of living and are the happiest… have always been soft socialist countries.
      They include places like Sweden. Finland, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
      The US is near the bottom of the list..
      Look it up if you don’t believe me.
      If you get sick in the US. you’ll probably go broke and there’s a good chance you’ll die.

    2. @democrats are pedos You are conflating socialism with communism. You should try to learn the differences

  6. These comments gonna be lit, also I’m Yang gang and love Bernie as a second choice, both believe in taking care of our people just in a few different ways.

    1. Please no more definition of socialism. There are multiple forms on a spectrum and it’s a trick question. Yes we have a mixed economy and capitalist has advantages in areas and more socialist in others. I don’t private prisons but I also don’t want to be taxed to death. You bernie bros can’t admit there are many failed models. Not everyone is equal and you can’t punish overachievers.

    2. Yang Gang loving Bernie just doesn’t seem rational. One wanted to give everyone 10,000, or a pittance. The other wants to spend $50 trillion. Seems like you missed the point of the whole gang. Promising people everything under the Sun without a promise of return value is contrary to every aspect of entropy.

    1. Denmark also has a population of 5 million.

      find me a population of 400 million where socialism worked for everyone

      you can’t
      you won’t
      it never worked

    2. Not Tom Cruise “I’m happy being mediocre” smh no incentive to excel in life. Just another cog in the wheel. I couldn’t live with myself not being able to reach my full potential just for the benefit of others.

    3. @BirdDogg What are you talking about? If you want to you can excel in life, no-one will stop you. If by “excel” you mean earning more money, then you will have more taxes. Maybe you like the feeling of having more than the others because you “worked hard”, but guess what : most people work hard. This political and economical system tries to provide a minimum standard of living which is humane and decent. After that, you can pursue your dreams of material success all you want, but with a cost. I know that it is against some people’s nature to care about others and give anything back, but social justice is the only way to have the majority of people happy. And because of that, more people achieve their potential more often.

    4. George Kontizas I’m talking about self responsibility. I’m all for a hand up, not a hand out. Teach a man to fish and all.

  7. It seems that when it comes to socialism for the rich, the establishment media and corporate shills are okay with it. When it comes to socialism for the everyday person, that is when they start to fear monger.
    One thing I think a lot of people do not understand is that socialism has been implemented in this country in ways for a long time and will continue. There are people that act like major parts of our society are not more socialist based and that it is all capitalism and privatization. That is not true. Capitalism does not work for everything just like socialism does not work for everything. Most places have a mixed economy.

    1. Deviant Affinity you are right, but the USA is not a Christian country at all, it is the most pagan of all the western countries: the American dream is just a variant of “the gods have chosen this life for you”. Almost all the social programs in countries like Canada are based on agnostic humanism which evolved from Christianity: share wealth and challenges for the greater good.

      But the ultra rich and their corporations are buying social influence to make you believe that this is evil.

    2. @J Groovy so•cial•ism sō′shə-lĭz″əm

      n.

      Any of various theories or systems of social organization in which the means of producing and distributing goods is owned collectively or by a centralized government that often plans and controls the economy.

      n.

      The stage in Marxist-Leninist theory intermediate between capitalism and communism, in which the means of production are collectively owned but a completely classless society has not yet been achieved.

      n.

      Specifically, in Germany, legislation, supported by Prince Bismarck, intended to improve the condition of the working-man. Among the measures included were the insurance of workmen against accident, sickness, and old age, and the establishment of cooperative associations under state protection.

  8. I can’t imagine living without healthcare, it’s just a thing that I don’t have to worry about being a resident of Canada

    1. @Brad B In Canada, Trudeau gone destruct the country like Pelosi son in law did with California. And there is snow, it is cold, you want be poor in a north country???

    2. Just an FYI… You pay more than income tax for Healthcare in Canada. You also have a huge VAT tax and a very bad issue with being able to find specialists. Don’t think just because OP lives in Canada that they fully grasp the system they live in. In the US, you have access to healthcare even with no insurance. If you are severely hurt or ill, hospitals can’t refuse to help you. This is a big misconception in Canada in which they think no health insurance = no help. There are misconceptions in both systems. My uncle developed a severe allergy to a medication and his throat closed up. They shoved a tube in him and flew him to 3 hospitals in Canada before finally taking him to a hospital in the US because they had 0 specialists who could assist him. If the US wasn’t around, he would have probably died. Not to mention a large percentage of wealthy individuals from all over the world come to the US to get major surgeries and other work done. In my next comment I will discuss the huge flaws in a government run system being implemented in the US.

    3. @o o people don’t think you don’t get help. They think you get an exorbitant bill afterward. It would literally take a 2% medical tax to cover everybody.

  9. The ‘kids’ face a future full of unstable employment that makes it nearly impossible to live comfortably no matter how much education they get and how hard they work.

    The ‘American Dream’ is seen as a largely unattainable fantasy. I can’t say that their assessment is incorrect

    1. “It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.” – Upton Sinclair.

    2. after all this time….you think if you just tweak socialism just a little more this way…everyone will get want they want.

      ahhhhhh nope.

    3. @Internet Composting Thats dumb. How will they have wealth & power if everyone is dead? They’re destroying the country by showing the public a form of government that a lot of country’s have and that it works well?

    1. @Mark Johnson They don’t hate rich people. They are just against a rigged economy for the rich, low wages for rich people’s worker’s and rich people paying no taxes, while using taxpayer infrastructure to run their businesses.

    2. Because once you get on top… Socialism keeps you there.
      With capitalism someone can come along and knock you off your pedestal.

  10. Funny how the old people, who were hippies and part of the Vietnam era, are complaining that today’s young are protesting and voicing their opinions! My God, getting old really plays with your values and mind

    1. James Wallace are you that naive to think that I suggested that I and my friends actually built the roads and bridges? It was a common man’s ‘we’. I’m sixty and spent plenty road tax money to build interstates that Bezos Amazon trucks roll over to deliver silly things that you can buy at a local store. Yes his trucks pay taxes but the point was the road system grew in the 50s and bezos was able to use them without initial investment in them to create his delivery system. so all Americans should profit from them. The funny thing about the capitalists who are scared by socialism never bring up the Alaskan model(funny how that GOP from there tried to run our capitalistic government) where every citizen shares in the bounty of the land. Yeah, that socialism, found in the great USA, sure has made a lot of Alaskans lazy

    2. @Wayne Riley Maybe you should have got a job at some point. If you had actually built any roads you would have money too.

    3. Wayne Riley, that “old people” gave us everything we enjoy and we take for granted including antibiotics, vaccines, the radio, TV, the internet, computers, phones-cell phone, laser, Automation etc etc
      The Young Generation takes everything for granted but they had done NOTHING YET. Apart from protesting can you mention ANY achievement?

    4. vrnc M wow you are a bitter old person. You were young once, right? Yes, they young put up with being raised by stupid old people who thought they knew everything

    1. Youngs are kids until 29 years old today. I leave the paternal house at 18 years old and I go work but the young generation who beleive in socialism never work, they go to school and they are brainwashing until they leave university. Communism never work.

    2. @Pierre Bahl So true. So many brainless kids that never work until 30, but they can vote at age 18. Hence the socialist neckbeards we see here.

    3. Kids , the ones that believe that they can support a family (have a house a car and full benefits) working in mcdonals.

    4. @Mulinaster
      I think anyone kid would be happy to swap the social mobility and opportunities with that of their parents… What have they got to look forward to…?
      A gig economy..
      never being able to afford a normal life.. like a family, kids, homes… because
      you need real jobs and real incomes to have a half decent life.

    1. I don’t hate bernie… But he still pushes the false oppression narrative. That white males oppress blacks, women, and gays.
      He also didn’t stand up to hillary. Why do you think he will resist the establishment?

    2. @cj p didn’t bernie told people to stop talking about Hillary’s emails? Im pretty sure he was defending Hillary

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