With all this talk about health care and the word socialism being thrown around, I looked up the definition of socialism--to see what it means, really.
According to Webster: 1: any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods.
Or from Wikipedia: Socialism refers to any one of various theories of economic organization advocating state, public or common worker ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods, and a society characterized by equal access to resources for all individuals with a more egalitarian method of compensation.
Thinking about this, holy cow!! How many of our 'necessities' in life fall under this definition?
Public Education
Social Security
Welfare
Unemployment
Anti-trust laws
Worker protection acts
Government regulated utilities
Minimum Wage
HUD
Civil Service Retirement Systems
Federal Employee Retirement Systems
Railroad Retirement System
Public Housing
Rental Vouchers & Certificates
Section 8 Housing Vouchers
Shelter Plus Care
Low Income Home Energy Assistance
Temporary Disability Insurance
Supplemental Security Income
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families
Food Stamp Program
Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC)
National School Lunch Program
School Breakfast Program
United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)
Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
Import Tariffs
"If programs that redistribute wealth are socialism then clearly Americans are comfortable with socialism. The whole point of government is to redistribute personal wealth. We could have eschewed taxes when our country was formed. We learned that it is hard to protect the nation by hoping many unpaid farm hands toting guns would show up when faced with insurrection or invasion. We form governments to handle common societal problems too big to be solved individually." --From Occam's Razor.info
I am not in love with government run healthcare, but when compared to other programs listed above, I can see the validity. What is more important than our health? Is it a right to have an education, safe food, fair housing, and healthcare? At the very least, it could be regulated or be subject to anti-trust laws (from which it is currently exempt).
Just thinkin...
