Socialism - As American as Apple Pie

[Are_grits_groceries]

Run time: 02:32 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTqsg7wa7o8   Posted on YouTube: October 24, 2008 By YouTube Member: Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: October 25, 2008 By DU Member: Are_grits_groceries Views on DU: 1467

 

[Pharaoh]

1. K&R

We need to keep them from making the S word a dirty word............

[mirror wall]

2. Exactly.

Socialism isn't scary. People who think so need to visit one of the Scandinavian countries sometime. There's virtually no crime, the Human Develpment index rating for the region is the higest in the world, etc. I've been to a few different countries up there and what has struck me the most has been how friendly and happy everyone seems to be, how NO ONE seems to lock their bicycle when leaving it in a public area, and how you can, as a tourist, wander around government buildings with very few restrictions on where you can go! Amazing. I'm thinking about moving to Denmark and I think it's intensely charming that they refer to themselves as a "welfare state" in a positive way.

Leaving that aside, however, America is built on socialist policies as well. It's part of what makes America great. Look at this chart showing how the American Socialist Labor Party Platform of 1896 is pretty well integrated into modern American society (platform can be found here http://projects.vassar.edu/1896/slpplatform.html)

1. Reduction of the hours of labor in proportion to the progress of production.



2. The United States shall obtain possession of the railroads, canals, telegraphs, telephones and all other means of public transportation and communication; but no employee shall be discharged for political reasons.



3. The municipalities to obtain possession of the local railroads, ferries, water works, gas works, electric plants and all industries requiring municipal franchises; but no employee shall be discharged for political reasons.



4. The public lands to be declared inalienable. Revocation of all land grants to corporations or individuals the conditions of which have not been complied with.



5. Legal incorporation by the states of the local trades unions which have no national organization.



6. The United States to have the exclusive right to issue money.



7. Congressional legislation providing for the scientific management of forests and waterways and prohibiting the waste of the natural resources of the country.



8. Inventions free to all; the inventors to be remunerated by the nation.



9. Progressive income tax and tax on inheritances; the smaller incomes to be exempt.



10. School education of all children under 14 years of age to be compulsory, gratuitous and accessible to all by public assistance in meals, clothing, books, etc., where necessary.



11. Repeal of all pauper, tramp, conspiracy and sumptuary laws. Unabridged right of combination.



12. Official statistics concerning the condition of labor. Prohibition of the employment of children of school age and of the employment of female labor in occupations detrimental to health and morality. Abolition of the convict labor contract system.



13. Employment of the unemployed by the public authorities (county, city, state and nation).



14. All wages to be paid in lawful money of the United States. Equalization of women's wages with those of men where equal service is performed.



15. Laws for the protection of life and limb in all occupations, and an efficient employers' liability law.



And in the case of the 4 parts of the Socialist platform which were not adopted in some legal or judicial form, there's still been considerable progress.

[MrObama]

10. Sweden is one of the worlds most successful Western economy

Sweden is a strongly industrialized Western nation with a free enterprise economy. Several of its companies enjoy a worldwide reputation, and names like SonyEricsson, Volvo, Saab, Scania, Ikea, Electrolux and AstraZeneca stand for high quality and state-of-the-art products.

* 100% Free Healthcare for everybody
* 100% Free education
* Higher education in Sweden is 100% free

* High ecomomic growth
* Large surplus on federal budget last 10 years $$
* National Debt shrinks very fast

* Low levels of corporate tax
* Sweden have the highest growth of productivity among leading industrial nations.
* Sweden submitted the highest number of patent applications per capita
* World Economic Forum 2008 competitiveness index ranks Sweden 4th most competitive in the world

[proReality]

3. Fantastic!

This should go viral!!!

[trthnd4jstc]

4. Socialism Does Not Have To Be Evil, Nor Considered Evil!

Socialism can perform good works. I believe a mixed economy makes for the better of worlds: Not too much socialism, and not too much capitalism. We can have a government that is not a tyranny.

[gypsylud]

5. YES!

Apple Pie were the exact words my Prof used in American History. He pointed out once that Eugene Debbs won like 6 percent of the popular vote in 1912 and 4 percent in 1920 while in prison under the espinoge act! And that states like Oklahoma were huge into socialism before the first red scare.
Anyway...

[jwirr]

6. Whoever wrote that is channeling my dad. It is a great ad and needs

to be seen.

[Kitty Herder]

7. K&R

:kick:

[crazy_vanilla]

8. yes, socialist should not be a derogatory term

Excellent video with cool and appropriately used music. It may be advisable to have the subtitles along with the spoken word to accommodate various watching styles.

[AlbertCat]

11. To the GOP

words mean nothing. They make up new meanings. Socialism, communism, fascism... they're all the same right? Only their definitions are NOT the same...and sometimes mutually exclusive.

And they forgot to mention the Socialist medical plan that Congress is on....it keeps the likes of Chenney and Kennedy alive not to mention the cancer off of McCain's face. Socialized medicine....good enough for them but not us.

[madmom]

9. Niiiice!

[seraphicx]

12. watch the comparison

While I agree with this video, shouldn't we be careful about making comparisons to countries like Sweden and Norway? They're vastly different countries with a different history, ethnic makeup and economy. A lot of gun nuts argue that because a country like Switzerland has high per capita gun ownership, it has low crime rates, but again, the country is way different (compulsory military service, way smaller homogeneous population, higher per capita income...).

Because Scandinavian socialism works in Sweden doesn't necessarily mean it'll work here.

[MrObama]

13. .

[Confusious]

14. history, ethnic makeup and economy

What does ethnic makeup have to with the economy? As for history, I guess if your saying there are alot of stupid people who won't accept it because of american history, them being told "socialism bad, socialism bad like fire BAD!", I can see that, but you can change minds. Country size and economics are a different story. But if you cut things down in smaller pieces, state by state, then there really is no reason it can't work, at least make things work better here.

Not trying is the only failure.

[seraphicx]

15. well....

Ethnic makeup has a lot to do with socio-economic conditions in America. De facto segregation, poorly funded inner city schools from white flight among other things. Switzerland, Norway and Sweden are ethnically homogenous, they've never had to deal with the immense social inequity that America has had to endure because of its history with slavery and Jim Crow.

I'm not even saying that socialism would never be accepted here because "people are stupid." That to me is plain snobbery. You're not going to convince anyone outside your circle if you just dismiss people as morons for not accepting your ideology.

To me, it's more a case of putting a square piece into a circular opening. Socialism in some form may work in America, but not the same kind of socialism that the Swiss, Norwegians or Swedes have. The difference is, there needs to be an AMERICAN form of socialism. Simply cutting and pasting the same system of economics from another country with a totally different makeup, history and social conditions doesn't take into account the unique characteristics that imbue every country.

In fact, the whole point of this thread was to show that indeed, America ALREADY has its own form of socialism. The issue with Republicans and McCain is that they primarily don't want to extend socialism to the health care sector. Why? Lots of money, lots of interests fighting against it. It's not about capitalism vs. socialism -- it's about factions warring for supremacy. It's never been about the issues. The capitalist form of health care enriches many in the health profession. The Obama plan would shatter that.