why is it everytime I meet anyone who labels themselves as a socialist....

[The Notorious LOL]

they live in these rathole apartments where their Marxist ideals seem to get tossed by the wayside because no one is ever willing to clean the damn place?

[Funkaloyd]

Cleanliness is next to godliness, and God is an imperialist. Viva la revolucion!

[QueenAdrock]

hahaha (y)

When I first attended UMD, there was a socialist on campus that would just sit with a clipboard outside of the library, asking people to TALK to her about socialism. Not do anything about it, mind you. Just chat.

So I talked to her between classes, and asked her why she thought socialism would work in America. "Social democracy works in Scandinavia." Sure, it does. But Finland's population is a little over 5 million people, no? Can you now imagine trying to apply it to a country like America? And second off, social democracy is quite different from socialism itself. It means they pay higher taxes and in return get to withdraw from that money pool when it comes to things like welfare and maternity leave. Do you really think Americans will be willing to pay 42% of their income towards the state? No.

"But wouldn't it be great if a doctor could fix someone's leg in return for them fixing his roof?" Um, yeah, I suppose. Yet again, I don't know how you'd apply that to the whole of America and see that they ALL did their parts and worked like a well-oiled machine in that respect...unless you're willing to put in a totalitarian dictatorship, however. I'm sure you can get results then.

I then asked her what their incentive is for doing well if everyone does the same thing and gets the same share. Who would want to be a garbageman if they could get the same benefits as being say, a chef or whatever? Making food (to me at least) is much more interesting than making sure the garbage water doesn't get into your shoes when you're pouring refuse into the truck. The reason why people do these jobs is because of incentive. Garbagemen make $70,000 a year and chefs on average make $9-12 an hour, unless they're *really* good at it. She then told me that the satisfaction of doing well should be enough for them, and if not, they could offer them more benefits like time off or a "bigger share" of the government's wealth. Hmm, it's starting to sound more like democracy to me.

I told her that government-wise, socialism is a bad idea because of human nature. I personally think it's a bad idea in general, but would agree with some form of social democracy to be implemented - IF it was feasible, which I don't believe it is. She then asked me if I was a Christian, because I seem to have a natural view that man is evil. I said, no, I have eyes and ears and a brain. I can see that man is evil and lazy on my own.

Oh, socialists. :rolleyes:

[zorra_chiflada]

I told her that government-wise, socialism is a bad idea because of human nature. I personally think it's a bad idea in general, but would agree with some form of social democracy to be implemented - IF it was feasible, which I don't believe it is. She then asked me if I was a Christian, because I seem to have a natural view that man is evil. I said, no, I have eyes and ears and a brain. I can see that man is evil and lazy on my own.

Oh, socialists. :rolleyes:

oh man, you've started it now.

[The Notorious LOL]

none of the countries in Europe are Socialist anyway regardless of how much they would like to believe they are. Its just capitalism with some socialist influence there.



I think its an okay idea, its just that an execution thereof is pretty much impossible because its completely idealistic and discounts the natural desire to want more. A lot of Socialists that I know argue that that is a byproduct of Capitalism which is kind of a "chicken or the egg" statement.

[zorra_chiflada]

i'm surprised joe hasn't posted in here yet.

[Ace42X]

none of the countries in Europe are Socialist anyway regardless of how much they would like to believe they are.

Yes and no. Socialism is on the wane now, with nationalised industries being broken up. However, under privatisation customers end up paying considerably more for an inferior service here. And, what with the NHS, etc and the wellfare state, socialism is still present, even if the countries are not totally "socialist".

[Bob]

cleanliness is a bourgeois luxury comrade

you have nothing to lose but your stench