Why is socialism seen as being so horrible?

Had a similar "discussion" today.

It is the "boogey" man & in the eyes of many is "communism" which we all know is baaad.

Big business has always had its hands in government,

Of late it has gone so out of control that it just had to burst out of the closet.

Say government control or oversight & you are a fascist.

Small government just means hands off & let us milk the economy dry to legal , non legal limits & certainly beyond any decency.

In successful socialist countries people do not sit around & reap unearned benefits.

Their cultures consider "freeloading" as indecent

No restrictions on getting rich if they can , they just pay taxes accordingly & accept the responsibility as well as the good fortune.

What you very nicely explained is spun into unpatriotic,un American, commie propaganda by people who never picked up a history book.

It really does come down to greed.

People do not question a CEO's salary that is many hundreds of times higher than the average worker.

Say wealthy elite & youre a commie.

No ...you are just a person wondering how a CEO can send jobs overseas when with a little decency could trim executive salaries & perks enough to keep the doors open , jobs at home & still make more money than he can ever spend.

Say fair play or honesty & you are a wild eyed utopian idealist = liberal = socialist = commie.

Say union & you are a commie.

Those that have jobs would be working 7 days a week without overtime or sick pay & be expected to bring a bucket of coal if the wanted to stay warm without labor reforms.

Say spread the wealth & youre a commie .

Any gains by people below a certain management level are seen as losses at the top.

The mantra of " maximize profits & satisfy stockholders " translates into "My salary & perks depend on cutting cost regardless of what the cost is to others"

Think they care about the country either?

The business culture of greed is sick , self defeating over the long run & has finally brought the country to its knees.

It really is all about greed .

Change that culture ...good luck.

Re instate decent business practices...good luck.

You mentioned the "gilded " age ,should have been the "gelded" age when the robber barons cut the nuts off of everyone.

Complacency & ignorance are the opiates of the masses.

We didn't learn a damned thing from history & now we are repeating the worst mistakes.

It is all getting too ugly & I fear no solution is in sight .

I fear for the younger generations .

Got me giong there & now i'm in a shitty mood.

Best regards

because socialism doesnt work. its been proved throughout history to lead to something much worse than capitolism. Take russia for example. They began as a socialsim, and everybody shared everything.

But the government that was supposed to fairly distribute the wealth and goods became corrupt and would not let go of its power. This then led to communisim. The problem with socialism is that humans can't share and the can't give up power. If you put someone in charge, they would most likely exploit the situation, and they would definitely not want to give up their power. So what you end up with is a communist state where everyone is very poor. Try to think of some popular utopian books like 1984 and The Giver. These societies are utopian, but also socialist because everyone shares everything. There is no choice, the government controls what we do. Now tell me, would you give up all your freedom, your wealth, your choices and throw in you bid for socialism so you can have what everyone else has and live in a predictable and crappy society. i sure as hell wouldn't, and capitolism in america has come a long way. Its no longer as bad as the industrial revolution, and we have significant government control over the economy.

In lamens terms, socialism = no more freedom, and americans enjoy their freedom greatly, so thats why we hate the idea of socialism.

Because it is. The government takes most of your income, leaving you with little to survive on for the rest of the week, while lazy people find ways to live off the system.

The social programs are giant ponzi schemes that blowup after so many years, so the government makes a new ponzi scheme and adds more taxes to fund it.

You have to spend all your money once you get it because goods always cost more each day. You go weeks without money due to union strikes, which you are forced to not work. Plus all the union corruption where you have to pay them a bribe just to get a job in your field.

The numerous paperwork due to all the beurocracy from numerous government departments, like try getting your drivers license or marriage certificate. You pay a bribe and your name is bumped ahead.

Oh and about healthcare, try calling the health department when you need to go to the emergency room only to get a hold message and wait hours for answer, then told you can't go and must see your primary doctor first, which means waiting 3 weeks or more. Or if they do say yes after 2 hours you have to wait hours to be treated laying on the crowded floor assuming there is even room.

That is why Socialism is dying over here. I think only USA and Venezuela are the only countries even adopting it now.

Why don't you do some traveling instead of thinking you are a no it all yankee.

first i would like to put on some adjustments on the first answerer's statement. yes communism is not the same as socialism, however, in order to achieve a socialist society, you should have first stabilized communism (although in Marx's theory, socialism should be achieved first before transitioning to communism, pragmatically, still i will have to stick with my statement as per Vietnam). this way, there will be a transition of going to a higher form of government. this is the same as the history of Vietnam.

going back to your question. why is it feared by everyone as horrible? like what you said, there is a vast monopoly of capitalist in different countries, that's why we have globalization. should we have socialism, will it be fine with the capitalist to have their assets and investments, be equally distributed for everyone depending upon their amount of work expended in production? and in return, could have higher or greater compensation than what they have? i think the answer is a big NO. and so, there will be a lot of resistance, especially coming from the people at the peak of the social pyramid class, the chance is that this capitalist will pull out all their capitals and investments in that country. meaning, there will be lesser investments which will result to a more unstable economic status in that country, do you think the government will allow that? to have their country suffer economically due to the withdrawal of investments? this means the country will drastically fall down, economically and globally. many people will suffer. hence a cultural revolution will come henceforth, maybe one of the reasons why it is feared by many.

this is a long argument if we are to present every facet of this theory. however, can you imagine a life with equality? where there is no social stratification? where the government is governed FOR the people and BY the people? where every resources of the country is solely for the consumption of its people and not only for one person? i think that's worth pondering about if we think that socialism is horrible.

i hope this helps, love lots! :)

You need some history lessons.

Did you know many economists blame FDR and his policies for the depression?

If his agenda was so good why did it take a World War to get us out o the depression?

You are aware our nation has $65 trillion in unfunded commitments?

You are aware social security has ~10trillion in unfunded commitments?

You are aware social security is a ponzi scheme and only works with an expanding base? It will not work during negative population growth.

You are aware the free market enterprise system made us the envy of the world?

Are you aware this year government spending is 45% of our GDP?

Are you aware that nearly 50% don't pay any income taxes?

Do you understand anything about who is going to pay for health care reform?

Do you even know what percent of our GDP the health care sector is today and what percent will it be by 2020 and by 2030?

Are you aware that our current unfunded liabilities of our government put a price tag on ~$192K per USA citizen?

Until you can explain to me why we can't pay for what we are already doing and it makes sense, I am NEVER going to be for any more expansion of our government into socialism.

$65 trillion = our unfunded commitments of the USA government. That is more than the GDP of the entire world combined.

Who can keep paying for all of this? I am tapped out and I make a good living and I have nothing left by the time the government takes all of my money.

We need to either cut spending or make those that pay virtually no income taxes help support the system?>

The problem with socialism is eventually you run out of other people's money to spend.

Why does Charlie Rangel allowed to keep his Chair of hte Ways and means committee when he has cheated more on his taxes than most of us will ever make????

I believe as the problems you mentioned surfaced, they were eventually addressed. Nobody who likes socialism tends to mention that. Rights for workers were also capitalistic in that if the workers were paid more, there was more of a market for goods produced. With more leisure time, people spent more of their money on other things besides necessities which added more businesses.

Regulating business is only common sense to make capitalism work better. It isn't socialism. Consumer protections and rights for workers are all part of a good economy. That isn't socialism. The free market allows the consumers to say which businesses prosper and which ones do not.

China is going through the same things the US did in years passed. The workers will tire of their plight but it won't help them until there are more jobs than workers and their employers need them more than they need their employers.

Actually socialism is not so horribly feared. It is just that the mass media is cintrolled by the rich who are making a fortune in the capitalist medical industry and they make it appear that people are anti socialized medicine. They control the government and although there are some who seek change they are fighting against very powerful forces. Medical costs are the number one reason for bancruptcy.

you are given a choice between being a doctor, 8 years of schooling and 24 hour shifts when you graduate, with a yearly salary of 32,000 a year, or you could be a convenience store clerk, no school, 8 hour shifts, for a yearly salary of 32,000. what will you do? there is no incentive to work in a socialistic society. i work with a man who lived in socialist east germany, who had to wait in line for bread. why you ask? because the baker got paid to produce a certain amount of bread each day. so people went without it. why not just make more bread, then the baker is losing money out of his pocket, he would have to do it for free. so on paper, socialism looks peachy clean, unfortunatly in real life in dont work.

In some cases I think people confuse socialism with communism. In the vast majority of other cases, some people don't want to help others because they view it as a waste of their tax dollars. People are generally greedy and selfish.

too much of everything is horrible a bit is essential though .. without socialism there would be no army or law enforcement. No one wants a socialist country , we all agree on that.. at least the majority does. to much socialisim is horrible but the real question is how much is too much?