Your "Socialism" section/forum caught my eye

S

Senter

Member
Location
Oregon
Greetings!

I've been interested in socialism for over 50 years and found it difficult to find a sensible and mature forum in which to discuss the subject. Maybe this is the one! I look forward to serious discussion.
 

I am very interested in Socialism. We have all kinds of "socialist" programs in the U.S. How about Social Security and Medicare? I think a society is most healthy when the poor and disabled are looked after as the societies first priority. I think that takes cooperation not competition...or private corps/businesses administering the institutions that guide our culture. It takes people who care about a healthy and fair society.
 
Paco Dennis said:
I am very interested in Socialism. We have all kinds of "socialist" programs in the U.S. How about Social Security and Medicare? I think a society is most healthy when the poor and disabled are looked after as the societies first priority. I think that takes cooperation not competition...or private corps/businesses administering the institutions that guide our culture. It takes people who care about a healthy and fair society.
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100% agree!!
 
Tish said:
@Senter many years ago, I had the privilege of staying on a kibbutz for 6 months, now that is true socialism, it's such a shame that there are no longer many of those left.
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Er...why do you think that is? (That there aren't many socialist kibbutzes left)

One possibility is that true socialism (I'm not talking about social programs such as SS and Medicare) doesn't work, and never really has.
 
JimBob1952 said:
You're right, of course. Just trying to toe the line on the "no politics" rule. The SF admin folks hate my posts and take every opportunity they can to delete them or to close threads on which I'm active.
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Understood. But where is the "no politics" rule found? It isn't in "Terms and rules" but it is found as part of the "description" of the "Current News & Hot Topics" forum. I must have missed it.
 
Senter said:
Greetings!

I've been interested in socialism for over 50 years and found it difficult to find a sensible and mature forum in which to discuss the subject. Maybe this is the one! I look forward to serious discussion.
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There is nothing wrong with Communism, Capitalism or Socialism. They all had to have been good ideas otherwise no one would have agreed with them. So, any criticism is based upon either preferring one over the other or finding discrepancies with regard to corruption in any one of them.
 
SeniorBen said:
Where in the world is true unfettered capitalism "flourishing?"
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No one (at least no one I know) wants true unfettered capitalism. We prefer free market capitalism with sensible regulations and, preferably, a strong social safety net to protect those who can't fend for themselves.

That formula has worked pretty well for Western Europe and the British Commonwealth, as well as Japan, Korea, Singapore and some other countries.

The US is a special case. We create vast quantities of wealth and innovations that help the world, but we also have serious problems. Some of these are no doubt related to "unfettered capitalism" and others are the legacy of slavery, mistreatment of Native Americans, segregation and many other ills of the past and present.
 
I've noticed that when people talk about the merits of socialism they are really praising what might be called Social Democracy, which combines a market economy (capitalism) with strong social programs and a higher level of worker involvement in labor policies. Which is great, it's just a question of how far to take it.
 
There seem to be a lot of gray areas in the no politics rule. I think that so long as the discussions were more general or theoretical and did not involve current politicians or the like you might be ok. Also can't lead to heated personal attacks, politics or not. You could check with @Matrix the site manager.

@Senter I'd be interested. I am a skeptic with respect to socialism, but always open to reasoned discussion where I might learn something.
 
JimBob1952 said:
I've noticed that when people talk about the merits of socialism they are really praising what might be called Social Democracy, which combines a market economy (capitalism) with strong social programs and a higher level of worker involvement in labor policies. Which is great, it's just a question of how far to take it.
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EXACTLY !

I am, of course, in favor of social programs which care for the retired and the disabled. And, to a certain extent to the poorest of the poor.
However, when socialism effects a healthy market economy , I am EXTREMELY leery.
 

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