I think that says more about you than the research.
Good point! That’s true, but in this case socialism is a function of government spending and not the extent to which the people have control over the government. I can’t think of a way to quantify democracy. Can you? I’ll be more than happy to research it if you can.
Yes, government spending is an attribute of socialism. Just like democracy is an attribute of socialism. Saudi Arabia has a lot of government spending and large welfare, but the people have no control over government. So on one hand it seems socialistic, but on the other not. But at the end of the day, the money is being spread around to the people and that has to be considered socialism. In Egypt, the money is not spread to the people and the people have no control over their government, so Egypt is anti-socialistic.
Now you got it!
Buffett and Gates and the Patriotic Millionaires are crusading to raise their own taxes, and they have capitalized off a capitalist system, but Buffett said if he ran for president, his campaign would look a lot like Bernie’s. He advocates taking care of the population that made him rich. He thinks the burden of government spending should be on his shoulders and not those of the lower classes. Buffett supported Hillary for president (because he didn’t think Bernie had a chance of winning). Essentially, Buffett is crusading to reduce his capital and that of his peers for the purpose of taking care of society. And republicans hate Buffett almost as much as Paul Krugman.
Capitalists, such as Peter Schiff, want zero minimum wage, no taxes whatsoever, no welfare, no regulation, and no government ownership. They believe the invisible hand of the free market will usher in a utopia. Per Noam Chomsky, this is a distortion of the teaching of Adam Smith (I haven’t verified that).
He argued that the capitalist desires government regulation for their own benefit, and that includes government spending by the military on R&D for the corporations (socialization of costs/privatization of profits) and government spending on infrastructure that corporations use, but on the other hand, it depends where the government money is coming from. If the corps themselves are being taxed to fund the military research and fix the roads, then it’s not plutocratic/capitalistic, but socialistic because the military and the road crews are regular people receiving wages from the corporate tax. On the other hand, if government spending is coming from gas taxes and other taxes on the poor, then it’s not socialistic since the poor are funding their own welfare and government workers are supplying their own wages.
It’s definitely more complex than just one statistic, but all I’m doing is showing the general trend as it relates to government spending. As Chomsky said, I think we can draw some conclusions from that.
Yes, I agree.
So your point is that both Finland and Saudi Arabia spend government money, but one has freedom and the other not? This was covered above, I think.
The easiest thing to do is support Bernie. twitter.com/BernieSanders
Bernie Sanders@BernieSanders
Tens of thousands of Americans every year get criminal records for possessing marijuana.
Meanwhile ZERO major Wall Street executives went to jail for destroying our economy in 2008 as a result of their greed, recklessness and illegal behavior.
Unacceptable.
Bernie Sanders@BernieSanders
No more private prisons and detention centers.
No more profiteering from locking people up.
No more “war on drugs.”
No more keeping people in jail because they’re too poor to afford cash bail.
.@BernieSanders has a simple, moral vision for America’s future. Instead of spending $6 trillion on endless wars, we need to invest in:
Healthcare
Education
Infrastructure
Clean Energy
“Real police department reform led at the federal level, which says that lethal force is the LAST resort not the FIRST.” @BernieSanders #BernieInChicago
“Together we are going to end austerity for working families and bring some austerity to corporate America.” -@BernieSanders
In the last decade, more than 30 states have considered voter suppression laws whose clear intent is to disenfranchise people of color. How pathetic and how cowardly is that! #BernieInChicago
We will no longer accept the absurd situation where large corporations like Amazon, Netflix and General Motors pay nothing in federal income taxes after raking in billions in profits. #BernieInChicago
At a time of massive income and wealth inequality, am I going to demand that the very rich and large corporations start paying their fair share in taxes? Damn right I am. #SandersTownHall
Where are we going to get the money to pay for our priorities? To start, Amazon made $11.2 billion in profits last year. You know how much they paid in taxes? $0. We’re going to change that. #SandersTownHall
Republicans.
Noam Chomsky: Republican Party is the most dangerous organisation in human history
Lack of education. Educated people make better political decisions.