This is going to be a wind-y path, so try hard to buckle up
and stay with me.
So, let’s
play a game. The setting is that it’s
nearly election time, and the political rhetoric, grandstanding, and
mud-slinging is in full swing. One of
the candidates calls the other a socialist.
There’s an audible gasp in the crowd.
Oh, the horror; the humanity. Why
won’t someone think of the children?
What people
don’t often realize is that the America that they love, the America that they
dream about, the America that we sing about, is primarily Socialist. The American dream wouldn’t be possible
without Socialism. There are no “White
Picket Fence”, “a car in every garage, a fridge in every kitchen”, “2.75
children” fantasies without Socialism.
So I for one am happy that we have it.
Let’s look
really quickly at some infrastructure stuff.
We have interstate highways.
Those are federally funded, but they are used privately. The purpose of them was for convenience
during the Eisenhower era, and the ability to move military supplies and
equipment across the country as quickly as possible in the event of an enemy
attack on American soil. Eisenhower
signed this into effect. This was his
plan. In fact, the official name for the
Interstate Highway System is the Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of
Interstate and Defense Highways. Just
sayin’. A quick Wikipaedia search states
that the construction system is estimated at about $425 BILLION (in 2006
dollars), the most expensive public works system since the Pyramids. The system is also credited with shaping
America into a world economic superpower.
(Note, if you’re thinking about commenting on the veracity of
Wikipaedia, then kindly go fuck yourself.
It’s a perfectly good place to find some information on something, look
up the sourcing, determine its truthful nature, and comment about it. That’s all.)
So, now we’ve all agreed that the financially second largest socialist
system in the history of the world is a good thing. Pretty good place to start.
Staying in
infrastructure, we have phones, power, water, internet, cable, etc. All are controlled and legislated by the
government. However, it goes even
further. Police, firemen, hospitals,
ambulances, all socialist. The military
is a socialist concept, and THEN, inside of the military, is a separate
socialist system. The FDA, USDA, AFT,
and FCC are a few. Do you like eating
food you know is not poison? Do you like
knowing that the gun you just bought has to adhere to a standard, and is
therefore considered safe? Do you like
knowing that although you just bought a cell phone, some other carrier can’t
just override your frequency, making your phone worthless? I certainly do. But if you answered yes, that makes you a
Socialist.
If you’ve
ever used food assistance, medical assistance, or money assistance, you’re a Socialist. OSHA, minimum wages, work conditions, all
fixed thanks to Socialism. If you’ve
ever gotten a government backed mortgage, that’s Socialist. If you file taxes as a married couple, that’s
Socialist. In fact, filing taxes is
Socialist.
Here’s the
short point I’m trying to make: We’re
all Socialist. We believe in social spending
and social programs. Now, here’s where
things get a little tough. Here’s where
I’m going to start saying things that aren’t as nice.
People don’t
dislike Socialism. They dislike people
that they consider beneath them. See,
people LOVE benefiting from Socialist programs.
Every day, I get to work on I255/270 to I55, and then home again on
those roads. I see tons of people using
those roads. Some of those people even
have bumper stickers that would cause me to believe that they frequently use
the rally cries of the ignorant, Stop Welfare payments! Stop Entitlements! The Best Social Program is a JOB (unless
there aren’t any, in which case that’s a really shitty social program)! And so on.
They’re stupid. Using that system
of highways is using a Socialist handout.
But back on
topic, people don’t dislike using welfare programs. People don’t dislike using Socialist
programs. People dislike other people,
people that they find disgusting, be they poor, a different gender, a
difference race, a different ethnicity, a different religion, etc. getting the
same chances that they get. It’s like
that in all walks of life. All people
like to imagine themselves exempt from the same strict rules that they place on
everyone else. I even do it at work. But, no matter what, withholding pennies from
a family that is starving is a pretty horrible thing to do as you talk on your
FCC regulated cell phone, driving down the Socialist interstate in your
government standard regulated automobile, while knowing everyone else is
insured because of federal laws, with your windows down, enjoying moderately
clean air, drinking a water from the bottle, knowing that the government
regulates water quality. Sorry, but your
anarchist nonsense isn’t going to work here.
But that’s just my opinion.
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