"whats socialism and would it be good for the USA?"

sure, socialism means free bitches for everyone

Was trying to avoid this thread but sometimes I cannot help myself. So a few points.

*Dude that quoted Ayn Rand, get fucked you worthless twat.

*Anyone that thinks the poor have an equal chance to improve on their situation compared to the middle class or upper class needs to get their head checked.

*The institutional barriers Travis mentioned are real and it is both a problem created and perpetuated by our society our government and ourselves.

*Stop calling the US capitalist, its as much of a misnomer as calling China communist.

*I refuse to respect anyone who argues against welfare and social programs without admitting the obscene amount of corporate welfare handouts that are given. This honestly is my biggest problem with the conservative movement in the US, a bunch of middle class people bitching about handouts to the poor without realizing how much the political powers they try to advocate for and advance strive to keep them down and only truly care about a small fraction of the population when it comes to economic factors.

*I think many social programs have done very well over the course of history, but I do think some of these have created institutional barriers to encouraging advancement. "Give a man a fish he eats for a day, teach a man how to fish and he eats for a lifetime."

*Social programs shouldn't just be directed at individuals but at disadvantaged communities as a whole. You need to break the cycle of poverty and poor education. The world will always need ditch diggers, but giving certain segments of the population access to opportunities that allow them to have a choice between ditch digging and medical school is a noble and almost necessary condition of a truly free and just nation.

*Socialism will never work in the US like it works in some European countries, our population is too heterogeneous the same command and control mechanisms that work particular in the smaller Scandinavian countries would not work in the US as different regions, and states have different access to resources and different needs.

*IMO the biggest challenges facing the US, is decreasing our economies reliance on corporate welfare, reducing special interest influence over our elected representatives, and finding more efficient methods for developing and implementing social programs that actually do what we want them to. Health care is an obvious great example, I was/am all for creating a system that encourages and gives access for everyone to preventative medicine and clean safe health care options, I fear because of political ideology and special interest influence this will turn into another wasted opportunity to do good.

As for my personal observations from my time on this earth and some anecdotal evidence. My parents were both working class or lower middle class, well my mom came from the upper class but decided to go to art school so she limited her earning potential, and I grew up generally in working class or lower middle class situations. We always lived in good healthy parts of the country though. My friends were for the most part consistently mildly to moderately higher then me when it came to socio-economic factors but that never bothered me when they got more new toys or bigger and better lego sets, I have always been pragmatic about how the world works. I also come from a broken home and well it didn't have a seriously negative effect of me I know and appreciate the difficulties this time of upbringing can create and I am always thankful I got luckier then most. We moved before the start of my freshmen year of high school and when looking at cities to relocate to one of the locations that was being considered was a more urban environment, healthy working class neighborhood in the Bay Area, but it was not fancy by any means. I would have finished the highest level of math offered at the school after my freshmen or sophomore year of HS. The difference between this HS and a HS we visited in the suburbs of Marin were marked. Both were public schools but the resources available to each were vastly different. The genetics our parents provide help to a small degree but the environment we are raised in matters much much more.

Well I know I have had a far more difficult path for life for some but easier then others and despite my own mistakes I have managed to be very well off for myself. I know being born white helped and I know having a supporting cast of parents helped.

Racism: Last fall there was a rather silly series of racially inflammatory events that occurred in the community I work in. Protests and hand-wringing followed with placating statements issued by various administrative bodies. Now the unfortunate outcome is the Pub owner of one of my regular watering holes has lost business because He is a Black man and many people in the community a feeling that "White-Guilt" or some variation of it. He stayed out of the whole controversy and wasn't really offended by some of the incidents but did feel they lacked sensitivity to issues that very few of the community have ever had to face. Still his business suffers because the color of his skin, it is a shame.

tl;dr

i would totally follow sam's blog if he had one.

now if only he could channel this creative energy into a lengthy advisorBlog.

i agree with all of that except the whole Ayn Rand thing. i mean shes about the only North American philosopher thats worth reading.

Objectivism is alright but it assumes in absolute right and wrongs and society will never be operating under those conditions. There is a balance between realitvism and objectivism in modern society that produces the most good. The comment was more directed at the thought of quoting Rand as gospel. Her philosophy while intelligent and insightful are far from what a modern and just society could ever operate under. The poster that quoted her brought just as little substance as the Socialism/Hemingway poster did.

*Dude that quoted Ayn Rand, get fucked you worthless twat.


That "dude" would be me ;)


Im sorry i posted an opposing view to yours. Sheesh God forbid. i didn't know you had all the answers. Its kinda funny how someone who is arguing for "social equality" wants me to go "get f_cked" for saying my opinion. I disagree w/ hemmingway/soicial## (and you) but i never did call names or tell him to shut up.


Course i could look at it like this:
If Mad hat sam diasagrees or is in fact mad at me I MUST BE DOING SOMETHING RIGHT

Oh hey you still aren't adding anything positive to the discussion while I actually qualified my initial rather sarcastic comment about you quoting Ayn Rand.

Half the population of the world live with less than $2/day, people are dying of hunger, war and stupid diseases every other second.

Let's knock off the moving stories of how difficult our childhoods were and how we awesomely overcame it. It's obvious that anyone who could afford more food than needed and who has enough means to waste time on a useless dice site already has a fair share of luck without having to do anything to merit it (unless you chose to not be born on the majority of conflict- and misery-ridden countries).