Reply to Can those throwing the word socialist around please educate me?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Someone in another thread defined socialism as [quote]the collective ownership and management of the goods and services and the means of producing them. The services and goods are produced directly for use, not for profit. [/quote] As a way to say US (and Obama) were nowhere near that.  But the connection to Obama is that when the government starts to take away the citizens' profits - basically determining what's a fair amount of earnings each individual can earn - and taking everything above and beyond that and giving it to the lower-earning citizens to essentially "even out" everyone's income, it's moving toward socialism.  It's de-incentivising people from striving to do better, earn more, and get ahead.

In other words, if you know that anything you make over $250,000 (for example) will be turned over to the government, there is no incentive for you to strive to earn more than $250,000.  The government, through its tax policy and government hand-outs, create a system where there is a certain "collective ownership" and goods start to be created for use - not profit - because your profit (over a certain amount) gets relinquished to the collective good.

[b]Hope that helps you understand some people's positions[/b]. [/quote]

And this is a misrepresentation.  The current marginal tax rate is 35%.  If Obama/Congress allow the Bush tax cuts to end, even if only for those making over $250K (net), then the marginal tax rate would return to 39.6%.  We're talking about 4.6%, not all.  This is significantly far from socialism.  Anyone who is really comparing the two is ignorant and doesn't know what they are talking about.  If someone compares Obama's proposal to Socialism, you know they don't know what Socialism is.[/quote]

Unfortunately, most people are intellectually lazy. It is easier to listen to Limbaugh and Fox News tell you what to think, than it is to actually educate yourself on the reality of the issues.[/quote]

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