Are We Heading Towards Socialism?

A few years back I wrote a column entitled: "Will The Next Generation Of Americans Be Socialists?" Little did I know how true that question really was.

Based on some of the emails I receive it is clear that some people today are not clear on the difference between Communism and Socialism, and in some cases, the difference between Socialism and Capitalism. Some have asked, "So, what's wrong with socialism?"

Not long ago Fox News reported this troubling reality ...
"Nearly half of all U.S. millennials believe the greatest safe space of all would be living under a socialist regime. That’s according to a new study from research firm YouGov and Washington, D.C.-based Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, which surveyed over 2,000 people regarding their views on socialism and the communist political system. The biggest takeaway from the study was that one out of every two millennials surveyed said they would rather live in a socialist or communist country over a capitalist democracy like the U.S.

“Millennials now make up the largest generation in America, and we're seeing some deeply worrisome trends," Marion Smith, executive director of the foundation said in a statement to Fox News. Millennials are increasingly turning away from capitalism and toward socialism and even communism as a viable alternative.”
Today, 67% of Millennial men favor Socialism. And if you think that's not troubling enough, how about this? ...
"The report also found that one in five Americans in their 20s consider former Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin a hero, despite his genocide of Ukrainians and Orthodox priests. Over a quarter of millennials polled also thought the same for Vladimir Lenin and Kim Jong Un."

By comparison, well over half of U.S. baby boomers polled favor capitalism, with (only?) 26 percent who support a socialist system.

For those who think the move towards socialism in America is conservative-speak, here's what the Democrat Socialists of America say about this on their website following the 2016 election...

"Favorable views of socialism aren’t limited to Sanders supporters. The 39% of South Carolina Democrats who call themselves socialists exceeded by 13 percentage points the number who actually voted for Sanders. In a New York Times poll last November 56% of Democrats – including 52% of Hillary Clinton supporters – said they held a favorable view of socialism. Nor was this sway toward socialism triggered by Sanders’s candidacy: as far back as 2011, a Pew poll revealed, fully 49% of Americans (not just Democrats) under 30 had a positive view of socialism, while just 47% had a favorable opinion of capitalism. In 2011, the percentage of Americans under 30 who could have picked Sanders out of a police line-up was probably in the low single digits. Bernie Sanders didn’t push the young toward socialism. They were already there.

What can be done? We all need to become 'citizen reporters, writers or teachers' to counter the indoctrination. So here are some 'talking points' on the differences between socialism and capitalism that I pulled together a while back from online dictionaries...

Socialism & Communism in a Nutshell...
Socialism, the cousin of Communism, refers to an economic system, which seeks to control the market, essentially for "the redistribution of wealth." Karl Marx, father of Marxism, the foundation of socialism and communism, said, "From each, according to his ability; to each, according to his need.” Some confuse this view with Christian compassion, but in reality Socialism is really 'Communism-lite."

Communism refers to both an economic and a political system, which seeks to manage the economy and the society by controlling the distribution of property and wealth, in order to "achieve both classlessness and statelessness."

Socialism seeks to manage the economy through "deliberate and collective social control." Communism on the other hand, seeks to manage both the economy and the society by controlling the working person, who is paid "according to their abilities and needs." In other words, the government determines each citizen's abilities and needs. Their slogan is, "Workers of the world unite!" a phrase we see painted on banners and signs in protests across America, more and more.

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