Posted on 11/18/2020 4:00:52 AM PST by RoosterRedux
Many people ask how we got to this point in our country, where everything now hangs in the balance, and the socialist takeover is quite real. The answer is [...] twofold.
First, neither ordinary people nor public opinion leaders understand what socialism is [...]. However, there are very few academics whose works correctly describe the essence of socialism. Their lonely voices drown in the stream of misconceptions about the subject.
The first misapprehension is that socialism is solely equated with Marxism and Marx's materialist philosophical concepts. The materialist definition of socialism posits communal ownership of the means of production, collective management, and distribution of wealth. However, socialism is a generic notion, and Marxism is a theory of communism, the particular and extreme current of socialism. Therefore, Marxism is undoubtedly socialistic, but it does not encompass the whole of socialism. The materialist understanding of socialism missed a significant subject of collectivization: the individual himself. Since the time of Plato, it has been known that socialism presupposes the subordination of the individual to the collective, which means the construction of a hierarchical society in which the elites rule the state and the commoners obey meekly.
History shows that the collectivization of consciousness is even more critical than the socialization of property. It is no wonder that such socialist trends as fascism, national socialism, and reformism used the collectivization of consciousness as the main path to socialism. But even the theory of communism proposed the dictatorship of the proletariat, first for the violent expropriation of private property into the collective and then for the subordination of the entire population to communist ideology. Therefore, the definition of socialism must surpass the boundary of its materialist understanding and include ideas and practices of anti-materialist, anti-positivist flavors of collectivist ideology.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
I did a present value calculation when I retired using only a 3% annual rate of return {far less than I earned in my 401K accounts} and if I had invested that money at that rate, for those 48 years, I would have had a lump sum of $3,300,000.00 instead of the paltry coupla grand a month until death.
I would have to live to be over 200 years old, JUST TO BREAK EVEN.
Social security sucks, but since I paid, MORE THAN MY FAIR SHARE, I want to collect my crumbs.
Even when I don't need the money, I'd rather collect it and give it away to my choice of charity, than to let the feds keep it.
If I think about the amount that the feds are taking from high earners, my blood boils, but there is no relief without a bloody revolution, {and I am not for that, not yet}.
Ask them what the solution to a problem is.....................another law.
NEVER the market place.
I’m sure you know that SS is a tax just like every other. A refund of taxes paid would benefit nearly everyone. As run by gov’t, you are likely receive far more SS/Medicare benefits than you pay, on average.
If you got to keep your money, then some would have more than others, and our socialist Dem and GOP government can not abide by that.
“Deal?”
it is a very common pathology for “anti-socialist” conservative wants every other socialist dollar to be withdrawn before theirs is affected.
So will you admit you are a socialist at heart?
“Now it’s true that one could have so many wealth-redistribution programs in a nation that the EFFECT is little different than socialist planning. But I don’t think we’re anywhere near that yet.”
We are well beyond that. We aren’t “redistributing wealth” we are printing money and giving it out. Whether we have socialist/wealth redistributionist programs or not, one thing everyone should be wary of is that we will eventually have to pay the national debt - one way or another. Socialism will look a lot different when that occurs.
“NEVER the market place.”
I prefer to say “Never the Constitution”
We probably agree though.
No, we are not. I’d be thrilled to cancel all welfare including Social Security. Those that paid in and had their incomes stolen need to be paid out, but future generations need to not be burdened with 15% of their incomes being taken from them.
In other words people for the most part are ignorant as you so nicely put it.
It begins with the family unit or the lack thereof and by the time the public schools get done with their brainwashing we are left with the disaster we now face.
Awesome time for a circular firing squad.
—
A time honored Conservative/Republican tradition which always allows the Socialist/Democrats to rise to still more power, while the nice things are written about the compassion of conservatives and the swell parties their Socialist/Democrats friends invited them to.
While Conservative/Republican debate ideas, Socialist/Democrats target them personally.
Truth.
No. I don’t agree. I look at SS as a tax break, an offset. So that the working poor/elderly get a much deserved tax break.
He stumped for two years or more to get the nation and congress behind privatization, but failed.
The bad news is that he failed. The good news is also that he failed, because if he had succeeded then Social Security would have been privatized right before the collapse of the housing market.
This would have ended up decimating peoples' private Social Security accounts and would have led to the decimation of the Republican Party.
SS is welfare for the old. All that money you paid in SS taxes were just another tax that they used to keep the ponzi scheme going. The Supreme Court has ruled that you have no property interest whatsoever in what you paid as a part of this tax scheme. If you did, it would be transferable and inheritable. You've bought into the socialist mantra. All SS is, is an inter-generational wealth transfer system. There is no 'lock box'. You don't have an 'account' with SS. There are merely bookkeeping entries that are effectively nothing but a smokescreen to keep the rubes from screaming too much about it. If you want to see what a retirement system administered by a government actually looks like, look at Galveston County. They opted out of SS, and the participants did pretty well.
It is a very common pathology for every socialist to demand that Social Security be chopped, with welfare unaffected.
I believe there was a safety net of sorts in that privatization plan wherein there would be a minimum amount of a SS pmt guaranteed in situations like this.
The plan also specified which investments could be made by offering a selection of mutual funds including MM, Bond Funds as well as stock funds with a limit on how much could be invested in any one aggressive fund.
Also when within 10 yrs of retirement there were further restrictions on investments into overly aggressive stock funds.
We are all Socialists now. As Socialists we dont care where it comes from as long as it comes to us and nobody else gets more than we get.
Hmmmm.... let's try it this way.
Ask a freeper about social security benefits TAX REFUNDS and if they should be reduced or eliminated.
I expect you want that money you loaned to the government back don't you?
Or do you just let the government keep it?
Free stuff.
You do realize that you have to pre-pay for Medicare and that you then have to pay for Medicare Part B right?
Oh and BY LAW you are forced off your current insurance plan even if you are still working.
Your options are "Medicare" or no health insurance at all.
Free stuff my sweet aunt's grape juice!
Allen Gindler is gullible...
What socialism says is, "You can be children again - the 'state' is like your parents were... they'll protect you and provide for you and YOU can take and take and take...
The reality is that even REAL parents get tired of 'giving' to their kids ... it shows up in every advice column ever written. AND these ARE the people who really DO love us...(even while they have celebration parties when the kids go back to school - or finally move out and start taking care of themselves...)
That the commie promise - the lie - YOU can be a loved child forever and we'll NEVER tire of giving to you. It's always Christmas and YOU get the toys! Is a lie to take power and they KNOW they're lying. Just like the Nigerian 'prince' knows he's lying when he offers you lots of money for 'helping' him. It's a scam kids...
Well, greedy little fools - communism doesn't work and the people telling you YOU'LL be on the receiving end forever-- are as honest and trustworthy as the above scammer from Nigeria telling you if YOU send %3,000 you'll get a $100,000 back.
So you look at social security as a refund of your taxes. That’s a new one for me. The problem is that social security is taxed and spent when collected, many decades before. The “refund” is paid out of future tax receipts (and borrowing).
Just admit you are a socialist.
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