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| Meme found on Facebook |
If you do a Google search of the definition of socialism,
you will find a progressive definition of socialism and a progressive definition
of socialism in history, both of which are historically incorrect. Both definitions
bear a glaring discrepancy to reality and embody the progressives’ utopian
dreams.
The first progressive definition of
socialism is a “political
and economic theory of social organization which advocates that the means of
production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the
community as a whole.” This could not be further from the truth. No community could
regulate or own anything under socialism.
The definition of
socialism in history is also factually
incorrect. It defines socialism as a “range of economic and social systems
characterized by social ownership of the means of production and workers’
self-management.” Workers never self-managed under socialism. They may have
hidden at work in a warehouse to take naps during the workday but that would be
the extent of self-management.
The real definition of a socialist society is the
government’s
ownership of the means of production, distribution, and exchange. Not at
any point could the proletariat self-manage, they were told what to do by apparatchiks
under the strict guidance of the Communist Party. Socialism was and still is a
pre-cursor stage to communism.
The aggressive mass media, academia, and social media
controllers’ agenda of indoctrination of the population is obvious at every corner
by those of us who studied real (not manufactured) history and have lived under
socialism.
The handsomely paid agents of indoctrination know what they
are doing, and it seems to be working well with the low information voters and
their fellow travelers who use Facebook and other social media as a source of
information via memes cleverly designed for maximum misinformation/disinformation.
For example, a recent meme designed by
Uncle Jack
states “Republicans want you to be afraid of socialism! ‘Socialism’ means that
we pool our resources to provide things for everyone! In America today, that
includes: fire departments, police departments, public schools, public
hospitals, veterans benefits, national weather service, roads and bridges,
unemployment insurance, drinking water, military, NTSA, Medicare, Social Security,
FEMA, G.I. Bill, Food and Drug Safety, CDC, NASA, sewers, bank deposit
insurance, hazardous waste disposal and clean-up.” It continues by asking in
boldface lettering reminiscent of Halloween, “So which of these current SOCIALIST
programs scare you?”
For starters none of those listed represent socialism, they
are services provided by the local, state, and federal governments with
taxpayer funds accumulated from taxation, dues, fees, etc.
Schools are paid by property taxes in the U.S.
Under socialism, nobody owns property because
the government controls everything. Schools are indoctrination tools run by the
government and their indoctrinated teaching agents.
Police departments in the U.S. can apply for grants
from the federal government under strict guidelines from agencies such as the
USDA’s Community Facilities Direct Loan & Grant Program. Tax dollars from
citizens pay for police and
firefighters and each state is vastly
different. Under socialism, the government controls the police and its funding
under different levels of monitoring in order to keep the population under
control.
Public hospitals are funded by the Department of
Health. Patients pay a small nominal fee.
Health care is paid for by government programs such
as Medicare and Medicaid, private health insurance, and by out-of-pocket expenditures.
Developed countries except for the U.S. have partially or
fully, publicly funded health care systems. They are not free; they are either
financed by heavy taxation or via compulsory health insurance. Nothing is FREE.
In the U.S., state and local health departments receive
their funds from grants (taxpayers’ money) given by the Prevention and Public
Health Fund established under the Affordable Care Act passed by Obama in 2010
at Christmas time, with only Democrat input.
Medicare is financed through payroll taxes, premiums,
and federal tax revenues.
Medicaid is tax-funded and administered by the individual
states which operate the program with federal guidelines. Some individuals get free
medical care while others must pay a nominal fee. Illegal immigrants and asylum
refugees receive free care from the moment they cross our borders unlawfully.
In 2017, the U.S. spent about $3.5 trillion or 18% of Gross
Domestic Product (GDP) on health expenditures more than twice the average among
other developed countries.
According to taxpolicy.org in 2018 the
federal government
alone spent $1.1 trillion on health care; $583 billion on Medicare, $399
billion on Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance (CHIP) and $70 billion
on veterans’ medical care.
Medical organizations are funded by credit, venture capital,
donations, grants, savings, subsidies, and taxes. Such medical organizations did
not exist under socialism.
Veterans benefits was approved by Congress’ $86.5
billion in discretionary funding. The money comes from federal taxation which
all working Americans pay. The U.S. Department of Veteran affairs requested a
total of $220.2 billion in fiscal year 2020, a 9.6 percent increase over 2019.
Veterans were promised benefits for their service for their
country and active duty in peacetime and wars. Their salaries are much lower and
are not commensurate with their sacrifice. These veteran benefits are not welfare,
they have earned them. They pay health insurance premiums for their medical
care.
The
national weather service (NWS) is an agency of
the United States federal government and is funded by taxpayer dollars. We did not
have a national weather service system under socialism. We were on our own when
disaster struck, and nobody warned us beforehand. The government did not see
fit to invest in such endeavor because nobody paid ANY taxes. We were serfs to
the government’s whims.
Roads and bridges are funded through federal grants
to state and local governments via taxation. One-quarter of spending on roads
and bridges comes from the federal government, the rest financed by state and
local governments. Gas taxes, tolls, user fees, license plate taxes, income,
sales and property taxes are used to maintain infrastructure which varies from
state to state. The Highway Trust Fund for highway and mass transit programs
awards grants to localities and states. Under socialism, paved roads were scarce
and deficient because there were no taxes levied by the government or paid by
the proletariat.
Unemployment insurance is paid by employers and is
not a feature of socialism.
It is a tax
collected by state and federal governments. It is part of payroll taxes. The
employer payroll taxes include: Social Security taxes (6.2%), Medicare taxes
(1.45% of wages), and federal unemployment taxes (FUTA).
Drinking water is controlled by the Safe Drinking
Water Act which authorizes the EPA, a federal agency supported with taxpayer
dollars of those who pay taxes. The act establishes minimum standards to
protect tap water and requires all private, public owners or operators of
public water systems to comply with the standards.
Water infrastructure
includes systems of water supply, treatment, storage, water resource
management, flood prevention, and hydropower. Different private and public owners
and agencies control the water infrastructure. It has nothing to do with
socialism, on the contrary.
Under socialism, the government controlled the water supply
and delivery. Rivers and canals were polluted, water was substandard, and it
was delivered whenever the government rulers decided to do so. A few hours
during the day cold water flowed, but hot water was in short supply or
non-existent, and, in summer time, there was no water at all as the mighty
government had to do maintenance for three months and the people were supplied
drinking water via cisterns that combed the neighborhoods.
Sewage treatment is the responsibility of each
municipal wastewater treatment plants. It is a service provided to the citizens
for a monthly fee. It is not socialism either as these are owned by various
towns and even private companies that have invested in the wastewater treatment
facilities.
The four branches of the
military, Army, Marine
Corps, Navy, and Air Force are funded by Congress through the federal budget.
The money comes from taxation and again, it is federalism, not socialism. For FY
2019, the Department of Defense budget is approximately $693 billion.
Social Security is not socialism, on the contrary, it
is welfare for the federal government which dips into the fund to transfer
money to other agencies, for other spending as they see fit. The Social
Security program is funded by the Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA)
tax, a payroll tax. The tax is assessed at a rate of 6.2% of income paid by
employer, and another 6,2% paid by employee. The self-employed pay the full
12.4% tax. “The money that employees and employers pay into the fund through
taxes is not the same money that you will receive later in life.”
FEMA is the Federal Emergency Management Agency
established by executive order by President Carter in 1979 which merged many
disaster-related responsibilities at the federal level. It is funded by taxpayer
dollars. It is not socialism at all. Socialist governments usually leave their
citizens to deal on their own with natural disasters and wait on capitalist
nations such as the U.S. to donate food, water, blankets, medical help, and
other resources when disasters strike. I know because we survived a terrible
earthquake in 1977 and we went hungry, cold, and homeless for days, and had to
find our own sources of water.
G.I. Bill is a term that refers to any educational
benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs to members of Active Duty,
Selected Reserve and National Guard Armed Forces, and their families. The
Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944 (the G.I. Bill) was a law that provided a
range of benefits for returning WWII veterans. The G.I. Bill is part of their otherwise
low military pay, for their service, sacrifice, and putting their lives on the line,
it is not an entitlement and not socialism as the lefties imply.
Food and Drug Safety falls under the purview of the
Food and Drug Administration (a taxpayer funded bureaucracy) which “protects
the public health by ensuring the safety, efficacy, and security of human and
veterinary drugs, biological products, medical devices, and by ensuring the
safety of our nation’s food supply, cosmetics, and products that emit
radiation.” There is no socialism there.
CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) is a
federal agency (taxpayer funded) under the Department of Health and Human
Services and as such it receives federal funding from Congress with funds from
taxpayers.
CDC Foundation receives charitable contributions and philanthropic
grants from individuals, foundations, corporations, universities, non-governmental
organizations (NGOs) and other organizations to advance the work of the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention. This is not socialism. Socialist governments
do not have the equivalent of the CDC.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (
NASA)
is an independent agency of the U.S. federal government responsible for the
civilian space program. It is funded by research opportunities with other government
agencies, private, and non-profit sectors. It has nothing to do with socialism,
on the contrary, it benefits from the existence of capitalism. Socialist governments
did not have money for such research or even other types of research. There is a
reason why most discoveries came from capitalist economies, never socialist
ones. Barack Obama defunded NASA’s shuttle space flights and research in 2010.
Since then, NASA bought seats on the Russian space flights.
Bank deposit insurance protect deposits of individuals
covered by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). This is a private
corporation with shareholders even though the name federal implies ownership by
the U.S. government – it is not. The deposit insurance fund is mandated by law for
each Federal Reserve Bank to set aside money and to pay back up to $100,000 per
depositor in case of failure of a financial institution.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) does not
receive Congressional money, it is funded by insurance payments made by banks.
So, it has nothing to do with socialism, on the contrary, it is capitalist finance.
Socialism has one bank only, that which is owned by the central government and
they do whatever they want with the depositor’s cash. They often confiscate at
whim the funds of citizens they don’t deem socialist enough or who have
offended the socialist government in some way.
Hazardous waste disposal and clean-up funding comes
from taxpayers; states pay ten percent of cleanup costs, fifty percent if the
state operated the facility responsible for contamination, and the company
which polluted is responsible for cleanup. By law, the parties responsible for
use, transportation, storage, and disposal of hazardous substances/waste and
oil are liable for costs. This is not socialism at all.
As we can plainly see, the disinformation of the Left is
quite insidious and unfortunately millions and millions of low information voters
and illegal aliens who vote but don’t speak English, fall for the Left’s
inflammatory, misinformed, deceitful rhetoric and memes which are generously
funded by billionaires who stand to profit from their deception.
