On December 11, 2012, Nurse Pam writes on AddictingInfo.org:
I was talking recently with a new friend who I’m just getting to know. She tends to be somewhat conservative, while I lean more toward the progressive side.
When our conversation drifted to politics, somehow the dreaded word “socialism” came up. My friend seemed totally shocked when I said “All socialism isn’t bad”. She became very serious and replied “So you want to take money away from the rich and give to the poor?” I smiled and said “No, not at all. Why do you think socialism means taking money from the rich and giving to the poor?
“Well it is, isn’t it?” was her reply.
I explained to her that I rather liked something called Democratic Socialism, just as Senator Bernie Sanders, talk show host Thom Hartman, and many other people do. Democratic Socialism consists of a democratic form of government with a mix of socialism and capitalism. I proceeded to explain to her the actual meaning terms “democracy” and “socialism”.
Democracy is a form of government in which all citizens take part. It is government of the people, by the people, and for the people.
Socialism is where we all put our resources together and work for the common good of us all and not just for our own benefit. In this sense, we are sharing the wealth within society.
“Monopolistic capitalism is faced with three alternatives: (1) It will either be taxed out of existence by the government, with the government increasing the dependence of its citizens through bureaucratic handouts; or (2) it will involuntarily be dispossessed through class struggle; or (3) it will voluntarily share control and responsibility with labor, with a consequent rebirth of the pleasure and pride of creative work in the restoration of liberty. Property will thus become the art of democracy, or the God-given right of every human being to shape something according to his own image, as the potter shapes his clay, the gardener his garden, and now we may add — as the laborer shapes his capital.” ~ Fulton J. Sheen, Freedom Under God, (1940/2013) page 73.
While there are certain services and duties of government that are best delivered by putting our resources (i.e., national defense, police and fire protection, public education, healthcare), the question is what should be the limits to pulling our resources together versus strengthening individual responsibility and personalism?
No one should ever want to hear the the words, “Don’t worry, I’ll take care of you.” At least definitely not from The Government. Why? We should want to be able to take care of ourselves and be as independent as possible and able to express our personal preferences.
As a country that was founded on the principles of private property ownership and human rights extended to all citizens, we should not be advocating “collectivism” as in the “group owns” but “personalism,” which is based on a new economic paradigm. Personalism structures ownership among individuals acting as individuals with full voting rights in the conduct of the corporations they are share owners in, each rightfully entitled to a respective share (according their their stock ownership holdings) in the full earnings generated by the corporations they own.
Our problem today is ownership of the productive capital assets held by corporations is concentrated among a tiny wealthy ownership class, and the majority of citizens are either job serfs or welfare serfs and either dependent on a job or on the “collective tax extraction and debt obligations” of The Government for welfare support. Not only is America OWNED by the so-called 1 percent, but the system is structured such that they will OWN the FUTURE, because investment opportunities are restricted to those with savings to invest––and most Americans do not have savings or assets that can be put at risk as loan security for capital credit investment loans.
Another reality is that while 99 percent of the population is dependent on a job as their ONLY source of income, as tectonic shifts in the technologies of production continue to exponentially impact every sector of the economy, jobs will continue to be destroyed and the worth of labor devalued. Thus, unless we reform the system, people will become increasingly dependent on “democratic socialism” funded by tax extraction and future debt obligations.
What should be the goal is to return power to each of us equally. Wealth-creating, income-generating productive capital property ownership is the ONLY way to accomplish this. Otherwise “socialism” with centralized decision-making as to who and how much each person is entitled to will be decided by an “elected” elite parentage acting as The Government.
In order to accomplish a personalized society, we need to adopt policies that effectively balance production with consumption, never allowing the private sector ownership of productive capital assets to be concentrated among a wealthy few but instead ensure that FUTURE productive capital asset formation is financed to create broadened, universal individual ownership. Otherwise America will continue to slip into socialism. That is what happens every single time property and therefore power is centralized in any civilization.
The problem most people have with understanding this phenomena is that they fail to see that there are TWO INDEPENDENT factors of productive input, which results in products and services being made and delivered. We live in a society that respects and should uphold private property rights––rights to the fruits of one’s labor input and to that of one’s owned non-human instruments used as a productive input. This is the invisible structure of the society. The non-human factor (owned by individuals) is exponentially advancing and as a result causing tectonic shifts in the technologies of production that destroy jobs (which increases the number of people seeking employment) and devalues the worth of labor, which puts competitive pressures to globalize production, which shifts employment to other countries where labor is less costly as well as regulations and controls.
The solution is to reform the system to ensure that as we expand the economy we simultaneously create NEW OWNERS of the newly formed wealth-creating, income-generating productive assets, without taking from those who now OWN until their death at which time there should be, as a substitute for inheritance and gift taxes, a transfer tax imposed on the recipients whose holdings exceeded $1 million, thus encouraging the super-rich to spread out their monopoly-sized estates to all members of their family, friends, servants and workers who helped create their fortunes, teachers, health workers, police, other public servants, military veterans, artists, the poor and the disabled.
For solutions see “The Absent Conversation: Who Should Own America?” published by The Huffington Post at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gary-reber/who-should-own-america_b_2040592.html and by OpEd News at http://www.opednews.com/articles/THE-Absent-Conversation–by-Gary-Reber-130429-498.html
Also see “The Path To Eradicating Poverty In America” at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gary-reber/the-path-to-eradicating-p_b_3017072.html and “The Path To Sustainable Economic Growth” at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gary-reber/sustainable-economic-growth_b_3141721.html. And also “Second Income Plan” at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gary-reber/second-income-plan_b_3625319.html
Also see the article entitled “The Solution To America’s Economic Decline” at http://www.nationofchange.org/solution-america-s-economic-decline-1367588690 and “Education Is Critical To Our Future Societal Development” at http://www.nationofchange.org/education-critical-our-future-societal-development-1373556479.
Also see “Financing Economic Growth With ‘FUTURE SAVINGS’: Solutions To Protect America From Economic Decline” at NationOfChange.org http://www.nationofchange.org/financing-future-economic-growth-future-savings-solutions-protect-america-economic-decline-137450624 and “The Income Solution To Slow Private Sector Job Growth” at http://www.nationofchange.org/income-solution-slow-private-sector-job-growth-1378041490.
http://www.addictinginfo.org/2012/12/11/explaining-socialism-to-a-republican/
