why are americans ignorant to the benefits of socialism and a progressive tax code?

Great system... Really???

If you punish success who will bother to achieve success??? So you want everyone to share the POVERTY... How stupid is that system??? Cuba has that and 95% of them are living in squall-er..

Your dream for America Sucks... But you already know that so why are you writing this bullshit here for the world to read????

Hmmmm I could guess......

"while communism is forced collectivism by totalitarian regimes" - I disagree. Communism is set up in such a way that a temporary government exists at first, and then later, the government disappears and the resources that are produced inside of the state are evenly spread out. Communism is very much an argument for the extent of humanity's empathy for one another and our collective instinct to co-operate and work together. There are many reasons that communism has failed in many countries WITHOUT violating those premises. For one thing, Governments never really disappeared and instead decided to use whatever powers and influences they had on the people to attempt to become more and more powerful, more and more totalitarian.

The idea of true capitalism is indeed one where the government has no influence in the economy and simply put, the richest of the rich are the ones who seem to have earned their money through competition and fairness of play, and are thus the most trustworthy when it comes to investing money back into the system, and... that's what they SHOULD end up doing, for that would seem to be the way to make even more money. We can debate whether or not this works but I would easily claim that it does not.

One thing to keep in mind when thinking about these things, is really how long the American tax code really is! I mean, you can get a degree studying issues like these and still not have a solution for fixing things. There's also this idea that once a system is in place, regardless of how much we would prefer an alternative, it's difficult to replace something that's so deeply rooted in the society that we live. At best, we can move towards implementing small changes that eventually add up to a changed system, but of course every small change has to be debated too! If you're an optimist, you can think of things this way: educate the public and you'll end up creating a stronger and better system. The public will become the voters and the voters will know what to ask for (if they're educated properly). If you're an optimist, you might think that we will learn from our current mistakes and work towards a better system, however being realistic we know that this will take time because our system is very big and deeply rooted, so change have to be small and gradual.

Agreed on the war. It was a gut instinct, an emotional reaction perhaps, and not the best one. One thing to keep in mind of however is that there exist many entities that benefit when a war is happening. Many people profit from war.

One word: EXACTLY.

The 'American Dream', if it even still exists, so twisted and contorted the country has become, only works if people start at a more or less even playing field. Obviously, you can't stop rich people probably having more connections etc. but you can give the poor a fighting chance. I know some of the responses here are going to go something like "the poor should work harder to succeed and then they will be rich" or that "the rich shouldn't have to give out their money". What people don't understand is that people can work their entire life and do the best they possibly can and still be poor.

Everyone knows that everyone at some point needs some help from the government. Even in Romney's attack ads with that guy saying "I built my business".... turns out he got a 500,000 loan from the government in order to build that business. People need government in order to stop the rich running rampant and sacrificing the poor in the name of higher profits. Although, since the rich bought out the political system, that happens now anyway.

As for Dwight Eisenhower below me here, democracy was invented in Greece before America was even discovered. The economic model that the US has was invented in England, before we moved on to something a little more civilised. There are over 180 free countries in the world, many of which had freedom before America ever did so don't pretend you have a copyright on the word..not that there is much freedom in America any more. Also, don't for one moment think that 9/11 was the first blood drawn in this so called 'War on Terror'. The U.S. had been occupying Middle Eastern lands and killing innocent civilians long before 2001. 9/11 was simply a very tragic but not unforeseeable outcome of America's previous foreign policy decisions. The only reason for the war thereafter was the amount of profit that defence contractors could make from increasing the US defence budget to world conquest proportions, the amount of civilian casualties be damned. Also, the fact that the invasion ensured that oil barrels continued to be sold in dollars rather than euros, which they were due to switch to in the following year, added another incentive.

your suggestion sounds very similar to the tax rate we find in other countries. i think the beauty and success of america is because we are a hybrid. we have both. the pure versions of any economic system has inherent problems . from what ive seen the big institutions like the armed forces , fire depts education and health care work better under socialist principles. i think i would agree that we need to raise the top tax levels. i think the we have had a smart ad campaign selling the public on the idea of lowering taxes on the wealthy and that helping our country. whatever the top rate is the rich will pay a lower effective rate. i just heard that obamas rates were 20 and 28 percent on two tax returns. mitts was under 15. the counter argument ive heard is the rich wont be motivated to make money with higher tax rate. poor babies! and what bs. we have decades of data that show that isnt true

"socialism is an agreed upon collectivism" Kind of answers your question then? In all the Federal States that make up the US, you'd think one would have implemented such if they wanted it. The fact that few have says more about what the people want. The reason Mass. was one of the few states that enacted Romney/Obama care is because they were the few that wanted it.

The EU is in trouble due to their institutions and the reason we are not in the same place as the EU is because we differ slightly in institutions. I find it hard to hold a light to a political entity that is risking a break up.

I dunno but ANYTHING'S gotta be better than Obama.

For example, health care-- Romney's plan means no new taxes... I frankly don't want to pay for the poor and lazy to get good health care while the quality of my health care diminishes. Urgent care centers are opening up everywhere around me, as privatized health care is on its way out. Sad.

Ah, and now someone's giving me the thumbs down for expressing an opinion that differs from his/her own. How very liberal of you.

The American Dream is to WORK for wealth, not work for it, and then have it redistributed to those single mothers with five kids trying to live off the gubbament. Many come into wealth, but many more work for it, only to have it taken away. Go to college if you want success, don't bottomfeed. If you want to go, you can make it happen.

We have the most progressive tax structure around.

find me another country where 10% of the people pay 70% of the income taxes, and 49% of the people pay nothing.

Answered it yourself one because Americans aren't well educated and two because socialism is a 'scary word' for them (they've been brainwashed since the '50's to ignore or revoke anything with the word socialism).

The US has a progressive tax code

We don't care about benefits.