Forum Post: American socialism???
Posted 13 years ago on Oct. 15, 2011, 3:22 a.m. EST by rotermob
(0)
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
Having grown up and still living in a European country that calls itself a social democracy with lots of social benefits and an obligatory health insurance since its foundation I really wonder if this new movement in the US is real and if it is honest???
After all, all Americans I know (most of them democrat voters) still use the word "socialism" in a very negative sense.
If you are honest: Would any of you be in the streets of NY and other cities now without a financial and economic crisis that frightens you as there are no mechanisms to protect you from its direct impact???
I, one of the 99% in Europe pay about 43% taxes on my income and 20% VAT on everything I buy for all my life, in good and in bad times.
Are you also the 99% in the good times when everything is just fine and you can make a great deal of money without sharing too much with the rest of your 99%??
If so, I hope the best for you that you can make the change in your country!
I am an American who happens to live in a European country like yours (perhaps the same one) which thrives, most of the time, as a social democracy. And at its core, up until the last 30-30 years, is a humane ethic based on a long-evolving single religion which ultimately became successfully secularized through increased education and, importantly, continued shared values. In a strange way, the state became its own church under one authority, without being religious. Only 2% of the population actually attend church regularly. But this doesn't matter. The shared values of a society--combined with education, awareness, empathy--can serve to moderate an economy and the leaders that govern the social society.
In two European countries--Sweden and Germany--that ethic is eroding quickly as utility companies embrace the post 1996 de-regulation frenzy PRETENDING that electric commodity trading has something to do with "free" markets--as a way of claiming capitalistic freedom. All they do is give a bad name to capitalism while literally freezing out customers who are paying 5-10 times production level prices. This behaviour, along with unethical banking practices with far too much virtual "currency" (also traded like electricity in recent years) is what we need to be fighting against!!!
So as we evolve into more secularized societies, we need to guard the core ethics that underline most world religion--without taking on board the authority of those religions who most often behave about as badly as the corporates against whom we are rebelling today!