What is your opinion on democratic socialism?

If by democratic socialism you mean something similar to the political systems in Scandinavian countries then I am in favor. These countries have very high standards of living and low crime rates.

Bring it on. Our capitalism-or-bust attitude here is ruining the environment and our healthcare system.

@Mariah Excellent point

Temporarily, short term, it’s not a bad thing.

In the end, socialism ALWAYS fails. Some places it survives longer, but socialism is not sustainable.

The problem with socialism is that its services ultimately have to be paid for. So either taxes go up to be able to support the benefits of a socialist society, or inequality (the antithesis of socialism) begins to develop, where people with money are served better than those without.

So if it works in Scandinavia in 2017, wonderful. Will it work in ten years? Twenty? Doubtful.

I am generally in favor of it. The problem is that the term “socialism” evokes a bad reaction in the US that doe snot understand the actual meaning of the term. Indeed, some of the most vehement opponents to “socialism” in the US are in fact beneficiaries of socialist policies. (i.e., farms, corporate tax breaks, protectionist policies, social security).

Nobody really objected to President Obama’s policies except they were labeled “socialist”. Bernie Sanders faces the same prejudice.

I favor it, and I still feel the Bern. I don’t know how Hillary managed to screw Bern over, he was very popular, he was even invited to the Vatican to meet the Pope, and was wildly welcomed. Something stinks about that last election, and the stink emanates from our own side. I will say no more.

What kind of Kool-Aid are you drinking, @zenvelo, to recall that “nobody really objected to President Obama’s policies”? Do you mean “nobody who mattered”? Or just “none of my friends”? There was strenuous objection to Obama’s policies – nearly all of them – from wide swaths of the country, and not just along racial or party lines.

@elbanditoroso has the right of it.

Social Security itself, the most nearly “socialist” program that we have in this country – and the most loved, by the least ‘financially literate’ – is itself doomed to failure, as is Medicare. The only questions are “when” and “how badly” and “how can we make it look like something else”?

Socialism doesn’t work. How many times does it have to be tried and failed to get the point across. You eventually run out of other peoples money to spend. A little socialism looks good but it’s never enough. Government grows until it consumes all the wealth of the country and collapses or becomes a military dictatorship. We’ve seen this movie before.

For those (like me) whose understanding of what is meant by the term Democratic Socialism is somewhat limited, here are a few sites for your perusal. Read them with an open mind but the understanding that they do have a dog in this race.
Democratic Socialism, a definition
What is Democratic Socialism – Democratic Socialists of America
The difference between Socialism and Democratic Socialism
Democratic Socialism – Encyclopedia of Activism and Social Justice
“Democratic Socialism” Is a Contradiction in Terms
What is Democratic Socialism – Wise Geek
A Selection of Essays on Democratic Socialism

Because sometimes better opinions come from being informed and not from just an emotional response to something.

and @Jaxk, while you may or may not be correct in your assessment of Democratic Socialism, I have to admit I simply do not know. I do know that we certainly need to make some adjustments to the capitalist system we presently have. Any time an economic system cannot provide a living wage to all who participate in it without supposedly cratering said system then it is not a successful system but a failing one. It is becoming more and more a economic set-up similar to that of Serfdom in the Middle Ages; one of bondage and servitude by the masses to support those on the upper end who control the purse strings and make life or death decisions for us all. Most of us are still fucking peasants as far as I can see.

Yes please.

I think it’s a label than in the USA unfortunately evokes echoes of McCarthyist anti-socialist programming, such as people are echoing here as if there were an axiom “socialism always fails” (along with accusations of ignorance towards anyone who resists that), even when all you’ve said is two words. So the word “socialism” is cognitive poison for many in the US.

I think the whole conversation about capitalism, socialism, communism, and related topics tends to be an utterly dysfunctional setup which has been manipulated to maintain the status quo.

I have no attachment to the term “socialism” and think that we probably need to avoid that word to bypass the dysfunctional conversations about it in the USA.

And as for my opinion, in general I think it would be a huge step in the right direction the USA moved towards policies advocated by Bernie Sanders, or practiced in Scandinavia. Above all, I am for the health of the planet (so, environmental protection and sustainable industry). Next, I am for the well-being of people. I want both my government and the large corporations to also be for those things, ahead of their own profits/wealth/power.

I think that big money and corporate influence should be kicked out of politics and most of the existing representatives should be evicted from office and replaced with people who represent the people and not corporations.

I am in favor of far more accessible health care and think the Affordable Care Act should be replaced with a single-payer plan that mostly cuts out the insurance industry. I think most health care should be actually affordable to everyone.

Similarly with higher education – it should be made abundantly available to qualified students at very affordable or even free rates.

I’m in favor of providing everyone with the basic means of survival and reasonable well-being, as opposed to the current way of abandoning large sections of our population if/when they don’t make it in the dog-eat-dog “job market” which is liable to continue to shrink as automation technology improves.

I am against the profit-first corporate charters that publicly-traded companies have, especially when those companies become quite large, as that clearly tends to lead to aggressive behavior driven by finding any way to continually maximize the wealth of those companies, generally to the detriment of everything else. When corporations try to pass laws in their own favor and the people shut them down, I think that should be an “anti-trust” issue, and they should be reorganized so they stop doing that, and repeated attempts to manipulate government for corporate profits should be tracked and shut down, not allowed to slip through the cracks as is currently done.

I’m not in the UK and I have a high regard for the principles of Democratic Socialism as I believe in a democracy all men are equal. The United States has moved so far towards the ultra violet end of the spectrum that it grudges providing services as basic as health care to its citizens. No other society in history has thrown its citizens so casually to the wolves of the free market. The United States is in the grip of an inhumane and unsustainable ideology.

I like it.

Solving problems is seldom done by neat, cute political ideologies that make people feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Does not matter if your special safe space is capitalism or socialism, neither have the answers to everything and if we choose one we will not be able to solve all issues or even avoid creating new ones. Problems typically have their own unique solutions that don’t often follow political boundaries. Adherence to one is not much different from religion IMO.

@elbanditoroso There are more than 20 different types/forms of socialism, and it would seem that perhaps Americans could make Democratic Socialism, or a different kind of Socialism than anybody else has tried, work. What we have now is slowly failing, as ALL democracies throughout history have done after approximately 200 years, and I see no other recourse after our current system fails, than some type of Socialism.

We basically have democratic socialism in place @kritiper.

@Dutchess_III I didn’t say we didn’t. And we could be so much more…

We desperately need it.

If we keep going down the road of Reaganomics we’re going to end up like Kansas. Small government is for the children of billionaires and suckers. Do a little reading on the Gilded age and how much fun the Great Depression that followed was. Also see FDR and the massive booming economy that followed the New Deal. Top tax rate back then was over 70%.

Kansas is a damn embarrassment. :(

Remember that the US does not have a capitalistic system nor a socialist system. It is a hybrid between the two moving more and more socialist every year. The problem with democratic socialism is that the people can vote themselves free stuff and against any responsibility to pay for it. We have been adding more social programs every year and reducing the number of people paying for it. So basically we have been asking for more stuff and saying make someone else pay for it. There’s always a problem when the people demanding free stuff are not the same people that are paying for it. Almost half the country pays no income tax and the top 10% pays almost 80% of the income taxes. That distribution is a recipe for disaster and more socialism will only accelerate the decline. IMHO

The top 10% have 76% of the wealth. If they are only paying 80% of the taxes then our tax system needs to be made more progressive. Median GDP has been relatively flat for the last decade or two while mean GDP has been climbing steadily. Link. In simple terms, the rich are getting richer, the poor are getting poorer and the middle class is being squeezed. Non-college educated whites have been hit particularly hard and account for a good portion of opioid addiction. What happens when they find out that Trump has duped them about getting their jobs back? Maybe they will be willing to consider a bit more socialism.

^^^ I’m sure they would. They don’t have to pay for it. It’s always easy to spend other peoples money.

Does it solve issues? If it does, bring it on. If not, fuck it.

@Jaxk that “free stuff” is paid for by the taxes we pay. I was sort of for Bernie, but I also knew to put his programs in place would mean a hefty tax increase. I was OK with it, but I had a feeling others, who voted for him, would go into shock at the reality.

@an_hero Nothing solves every issues. The more important thing is to ask if it allows equality for all citizens.

For middle class there is no “free stuff” they pay for almost all of it and good bit of everyone elses stuff too.

And if can do it, I don’t mind.

I would say that a big part of the cost for a myriad of social programs to benefit our society in general could come from re-prioritizing. Not sure that we need to increase an already bloated military budget another 81 Billion. Not sure we need to maintain military bases around the world, not sure we need spend billions subsidizing the oil and gas industries, etc. etc. That and a progressive tax structure that had those reaping the most monetary benefit paying a much larger percentage of their wealth into taxes might also help. Let’s face it, trickle down never has and never will work so go ahead and take it up front.

@Dutchess_III Well I do, I’m ok with paying my fair share but not more. By the time all “taxes” are accounted for many of us pay like close to half of our incomes. The reason progressive tax structures are not working is because the middle class are often put into the 15–20 brackets but they still have to spend a much higher percentage than the very wealthy do. There are multiple built in taxes to this spending. It leaves very little “disposable” income or wealth generating income. So the rich may have to pay 35–40% but they don’t usually have to spend 60% or so that is left. They can usually roll thst wealth into tax havens and into asset/wealth generating investment vehicles the middle class simply don’t have access to. The result is they continue to get richer while the rest of us struggle more and more. The consequences of destroying the middle class are basically that nobody except the very rich will have a hope or prayer of having a decent standard of living. Don’t raise taxes enact policies that allow the vast swath of people to accumulate wealth to a reasonable degree and policies that make obscene wealth building progressively harder. That’s the formula for prosperity. You cannot continue to raise taxes and expect the solution to get better, it will just get worse. We want the economy to resonate around the middle class not filter them out.

@Dutchess_III Does equality solve issues? If yes, bring it on. If no, fuck it.

Inequality creates huge issues. Equality fixes some issues.

What issues would you like to see fixed?

@Jaxk If (?) the US’s democracy is deteriorating, like all the others did, what do you see the US system evolving into if not socialism?

Trump may be the opening move for that. Scary.

Same as drugs, just say no.

Do you live in America @MollyMcGuire?

@MollyMcGuire Some drugs can be ok in moderation ;) Just saying :)