Thread: America Will Never Be A Socialist Country

Originally Posted by Hadrian

The President announced in his State of the Union speech last night that America will never be a Socialist country. That was well said as long as one differentiates between the text book definition of Socialism and the Fox News definition of Socialism.
It is not Socialist to give your working class four weeks of vacation by law. Every country in Europe does this. That doesn't include legal holidays.
It is not Socialist to give your working class sick leave by law. Europe does this.
It is not Socialist to give employees paid family leave. Europe does this.

It appears that Fox News gets to define Socialism as anything that would make employee lives better at a cost.
Europe has many political parties and one of them is Social Democrats. Social Democrats are what our Democratic party was before the lobbyists corrupted them.

That last line is slightly suspect but I'm going to like it anyway, with this addendum :

Our Democratic Party, like the other major party, has gone through quite a few tectonic shifts over a century or more, but in the recent modern era starting about eighty some years ago it is true that the Democrats began to get inspiration from Franklin Delano Roosevelt and saw fit to strive to further values he helped to implement. Along the way we experienced further growing pains, gained new friends and lost some old ones.
Some of the latter were fit to lose, some of the former aren't worth a damn. The process continues today.
May we continue to strive for better.

PS: Love your line about "Fox News Socialism". I think you may have just coined something. May I borrow it? Will you allow it to go viral?

Originally Posted by OrphanSlug

All the more evidence that no one knows what socialism really means, but the term is sure going to be used to frighten people.

Hadrian nailed it when he mentioned "Fox News Socialism" because in this country, apparently Fox News is the only entity allowed to define socialism, thus just about anything that frightens or confuses Fox News is ..... socialism.

Originally Posted by Keridan

Our quality of care is higher and raises the standards around the world by making R&D profitable

Yachts for CEO's along with inflated salaries and giant dividends for stockholders do not fuel research and development. Further to that point, a large part of research and development is in fact bankrolled by taxpayers through universities...oh and...even a couple of government agencies.

Originally Posted by Keridan

We do make some sacrifices in return for being the best at many many things. It's hard to find the balance.

The definition of "we" is both fluid and suspect. There is an incredibly large "we" composed of the most needy and the most vulnerable who will only dream of the great strides and advances you speak of, as they prepare to die, often needlessly and prematurely, in the richest country on Earth.

Hard to find the balance? Yes, when raw naked greed has its thumb on the scales, balance is a sick joke.
When raw naked power is gatekeeper to said scales, the laughter stops abruptly.
I don't hear anyone laughing.

Originally Posted by notquiteright

Our quality of care is higher for SOME people... if you can pay the tremendous cost you get the care. Medicare/aid patients don't have access to the highest levels of treatment nor cutting edge treatments. You think those 'best docs in the world' are going to take my VA insurance??? Good or bad doctors flock here because here they can charge amazing prices for even simple procedures. It's a protected market. Hell bad doctors are simply shuttle around from hospital/state/practice for decades with no accountability.

True that government Healthcare (va) is a considerably lover quality of care. No reason to compete for lowest pay.

False that docs get away with listed problems. Having had to go through the process of getting privileges for docs at 3 accredited hospitals and a private practice, I'm well acquainted with the extensive checks required. Full background, malpractice checks, 3 peer letters, etc etc etc.

Originally Posted by notquiteright

Big Pharma and the medical industry would still be profitable IF the same competition that drives retail consumer goods was allowed to work. This isn't capitalism but rather a rigged game for protecting (and justifying) MASSIVE profits.

Yes, when government pay freezes created fringe benefits and that changed the market and ruined supply demand and accountability, we paid a heavy price.

Originally Posted by notquiteright

As an aside some of the biggest profits comes from the lowest cost products- the massive numbers of opioids sold in every state, often more than there are citizens of that state.

Only point to question here is why something prescribed up to 10 per day per patient should be compared to number of people in a state.

Originally Posted by notquiteright

For most of us the quality of care would be higher if there was a massive overhaul of the healthcare industry. But those who are raking in massive profits are not about to agree to this...

Actually, most would love it as long as we weren't having it handled by the folks who brought us medicaid, vq, aca, department of education, social security and a thousand other failed prpgrams

Originally Posted by RetiredUSN

Move to Europe.

What a dumb response.

Originally Posted by Hadrian

The President announced in his State of the Union speech last night that America will never be a Socialist country. That was well said as long as one differentiates between the text book definition of Socialism and the Fox News definition of Socialism.
It is not Socialist to give your working class four weeks of vacation by law. Every country in Europe does this. That doesn't include legal holidays.
It is not Socialist to give your working class sick leave by law. Europe does this.
It is not Socialist to give employees paid family leave. Europe does this.

It appears that Fox News gets to define Socialism as anything that would make employee lives better at a cost.
Europe has many political parties and one of them is Social Democrats. Social Democrats are what our Democratic party was before the lobbyists corrupted them.

He also announced in his latest rally (El Paso?) that he would never sign a bill to release dangerous criminal into society.
The guy's a complete buffoon.

Trump- "I'll never allow the Democrats to shoot down Santa Claus!"
Trumpanzees- "Yay! Hurray! You the man!"
Trump- "I'll never sign a bill allowing Cuban soldiers to occupy the Rose Garden!"
Trumpanzees- "Alright! We love you, Donald! You saving the USA from socialism!"