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Let us ask you one thing first, what comes to your mind when you hear the term socialism? If you are completely blank and have nothing to say, you are in the right place! Our team likes to do a lot of research regarding political science, and we have a good amount of knowledge regarding different political philosophies.
And in this article, we are going to mainly focus on socialism. Describe what it actually means and give examples of socialism in America. And after reading all that, your idea regarding the term and its meaning will be crystal clear.
What Is Socialism?
In the 2020 election season, one of the buzzwords was socialism. It was probably the most spoken word in the campaign season. And if you have been in one of the Republican National Convention, you must have heard it about a hundred times.
The conservative leaders are going to depict this term and its main idea as the bogeyman that will kill the democracy. However, some of the democrats, including senator Bernie Sanders, have embraced the socialism label. And they did not show any hesitations at all.
But what does it mean? In the simplest term, socialism is the call for offering total control towards the citizens of the nation. If not all, it demands at least proper control over the production sector. And you might know already that production is the major ingredient for a healthy economy.
When referring to the production sector, we refer to the industries, natural resources, energy, and other essential things. And if socialism is implemented to its fullest, all the surplus will directly benefit all the citizens.
However, whenever we bring up the topic of capitalism, the two will collide against each other. The main idea of capitalism is to provide total control of the private production sectors to their respective owners. That means any profit that is generated from these sectors will be kept to the respective owners.
Core Of Socialism
Before we get into the other topics, we would like to ensure that you have a proper idea regarding socialism. It was first developed by Karl Marx. And it came into the political scenario during the transitional period of communism and capitalism.
In socialism, the workers take the role of making and distributing the goods. That means the money that they will make on the process will belong to them, not to the private owners.
To properly understand this concept, allow us to give an example. Consider a burger shop where all of the workers are getting the same amount of payment. And the payment is based on the amount of profit that the shop makes.
Additionally, all of the workers there can make business decisions. That would make that burger shop belong to the socialist economy. However, it would be in a socialist economy in a corporation.
On that note, socialism only exists in the countries as an overall economic system. However, there are cases where socialism does exist but with a fraction of corporations.
What Is The View Of American Politicians Regarding Socialism?
Most Americans are going to see capitalism and socialism systems as opposite to each other. Well, it is completely normal because one calls for the benefit of the citizens, while the other only sees the profit and the future of the private sector and their owners.
However, the views of the political parties are not the same. For example, Republicans are generally going to view these two in an either-or view. In a recent survey, it has been found that 68 percent of the republicans are going to have a negative view of socialism. That leaves the rest 32 percent in favor of the system.
Even though that 32 percent might seem reasonably small in number when we compare it against 68, it does have a proper impact on the party’s activities. And the fact that two of the systems can coexist simultaneously means that the county should have a better overall political scenario, which is true!
The Goal Of Socialists
So, you now know about socialism and know about the views of the politicians regarding the system. Now, you would be asking yourself, what do socialists want. Well, there have always been different types of socialists. Also, there are various ideas regarding means of productions.
But no matter what the view of those socialists is, they always question the government’s role in terms of means of production. That is what unites them all. And all of them have the same goal, which is to follow the socialistic economy.
Considering that, the socialistic senators are always going to advocate for the control being handed over to the public in transportation, education, housing, energy, and other means of production. They will be highly against the idea of running all of these for-profit motives.
Some of the socialists are going to have a strong opinion regarding private enterprises. They will demand a complete ban over those. However, do not mix up with the idea of socialism and communism. These two are completely different theories and have different idealogy.
That would also mean that if a socialist is demanding personal gains from any production means, that person is not a socialist. Instead, that person would simply fall under the category of communist. However, if that person is stating all about the benefit of the citizens, it will fall completely under socialism.
Example Of Socialism In The USA
After all of those segments, you might now have proper knowledge regarding what socialism is and its role in America. However, if we give some examples regarding its presence in the USA, your idea regarding the topic will be stronger and clearer. So, here are some of the examples:
- The income tax scenario in the USA is pretty heavy and progressive. Individuals do not have the legal right to keep their earnings to their selves. A good amount of it is deducted right before that individual receives their income.
- When it comes to the rights of private property, there are plenty of rules surrounding it. And those laws and regulations are what make the people owning different properties not have total control over those. So, property taxes remain prevalent.
- There is a Federal Reserve in the US. And this reserve is a national bank, which means it is for the people living in the states. This activity alone makes the governmental system socialist.
- The US imposes a substantial amount of tax on the amount gained from inheritance. However, it is gradually getting better over the years. But still, some of the regions have heavy tax laws. Also, some procedures make the whole thing a bit cumbersome.
- Most of the transportation systems are owned by the state. Also, most of them are totally controlled by the state.
- Peace Corps, Americorps, and other civilian employment armies are not established. And there are about tens of millions of different employees that are under different positions on that corps.
- The whole country has veered the entire theory of Marxist socialism into National Socialism. However, some of the factories and other production sectors are owned by specific private groups. They are not directly affiliated, but they do have to pay a good amount of tax.
- There are federal training programs, and federal education systems carried out all over the country. These are also proper examples of socialist practices that are carried out in a socialistic country.
- The line between industry and agriculture is now blurred thanks to “FrankenFood.” There are plenty of federal policies regarding it, and things are going more into socialism than other political systems.
From these examples, one thing is quite clear. And that would be even though the political parties are going to say that they are merging both socialism and communism in the political scenario, the USA is slowly becoming a fully socialistic country.
Even if you look at a particular state, you will tell how the country has become so socialistic. Yes, we are talking about New Jersey. They have transformed their category to “Suburb State” from “Garden State.” And soon, the rest of the states are going to fall under the same line.
Final Words
Hopefully, after going through this entire discussion regarding socialism and knowing about the examples of socialism in America, you are now aware of what the system is. And now we hope that if anyone states about communism, capitalism, or any other system, you will not mix them up with socialism.
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