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Tag: socialism

Trump keeps crying “Socialism” if Biden gets elected.

September 2, 2020 / / 109 Comments
“The federal government’s hard-line response to anti-racist protests this summer may help Biden’s argument. Diego Scharifker, a former student movement leader and city councilman in Caracas who fled Venezuela amid Maduro’s crackdown on political opponents and protesters, said that images of federal agents firing tear gas at protesters outside the White House in June, all so Trump could stage a photo op, was a troubling reminder of home.
“Since I moved here to the U.S. three years ago, I feel like I am living a deja vu,” said Scharifker, a former member of the Venezuelan opposition (which Trump backs) who now leads Venezolanos Con Biden, a grassroots offshoot of the Biden campaign, during the roundtable event. “I’m living the same situations I fled from my country because of political persecution and attacks against democracy.” “
—What Trump has going for him in this regard is most of his base are stupid. I guess being “elite” I actually know what Socialism is and every time he says it they freak out. Socialism might be Cuba, but you know what else it might be? Norway. Canada. New Zealand. Japan. Countries where we hear about nothing but violence and bread lines from all the poor, right? WRONG! ALL of our developed First World neighbors that have these policies Republicans are terrified of have much lower crime rates, much lower poverty rates, much higher rates of happiness on that index, longer lifespans, the people earn more, they have MORE freedom, not less. Republicans are lying to you about this. Like when Trump said Japan is doing really bad because of the virus. 150,000,000+ and they had 1200 deaths. We have 330,000,000 people and we’ve had 200,000 deaths. Which is worse? Can you do simple math?
The “Socialism” that Republicans are afraid of doesn’t mean we become Cuba or Venezuela. For that to happen first you’d have to admit that the majority of Americans are complete morons, not just by voting for whomever you don’t like, but really dumb people who are incapable of running a country. And we’re not. Then you’d have to assert that our government and military can be bought and sold, and they can’t to that level. And you’d have to prove the police can also be bought and sold like that, and they cannot, either. What it would mean are probably higher taxes, but that ALL your basic needs would be paid for. Imagine things like no more electric bill, no more cable bill, no health care bill, no bills for college tuition. You’d have more time off from work, better-paying jobs, and a government that takes care of you when you retire. The crime rate would be almost zero, obesity would disappear, as would most illnesses, and people would engage with their neighbors as fellow human beings, not one race or religion or another. Sounds terrible, right? They STILL have millionaires and even billionaires. You can still open your own business and control it how you see fit. What exactly is the problem with that?
And in a lot of those countries drugs are legal. Know why? Because when they did that the overdose numbers tanked. They regulated it, they freed up the prisons, and the gang and cartels have no foothold because of it. Prostitution is legal a lot of those places because at the end of the day it’s your body, why should government tell you what you can do with it. Nudity is even legal in a lot of those places. Why? Because it’s the human body and not shameful nor criminal.
This country is so uptight, full of hate and crime, but, yeah, stoke the fear we might turn out like New Zealand if Biden gets elected. That makes me want to vote for him MORE.

Health care is too damn expensive in the US.

February 8, 2020 / / 2 Comments

“While employers pay most of the costs of coverage, according to the survey, workers’ average contribution is now $6,000 for a family plan. That’s just their share of upfront premiums, and doesn’t include co-payments, deductibles and other forms of cost-sharing once they need care.” —That’s if you have an employer. If you’re self-employed you either pick a catastrophic plan, a bronze plan, neither of which cover very much, or pay a LOT more for Silver or Gold. Even then with Silver and Gold most things aren’t covered and you run into that deductible.

Here’s what I don’t get: places like Canada their health care costs are a tenth of what ours are for the same or better care. The US ranks around 20th in the world for quality of health care, so that idea republicans have that we have the best care simply isn’t true. How you “feel” doesn’t reflect reality. Like we all think our education is the best in the world, and that isn’t true, either. Both are very good, but how do countries with much longer life expectancies, with higher qualities of life, and more satisfaction manage to do it? Higher taxes. I don’t know, for me the trade-off is worth it. Americans are so greedy it’s sad. Instead of having the most people in the developed world die who could’ve been saved we choose profit. Instead of rehabilitating people who run afoul of our laws we choose to piss away tax dollars to lock them up. We have the highest incarceration rate in the world and with many prisons being for profit, you can see why. And those people are statistically more likely to hit that revolving door because we’d rather spend tax money to give to for profit prisons because it “feels better” to punish people, than to divert them to programs that are proven to work and end those cycles.

Mr. Medal of Freedom, Rush Limbaugh is a great example of that. He’s a hardliner when it comes to drug abuse. He says we should “put them in jail and throw away the key”. But having means, when he himself became addicted and got busted with illegal prescriptions wanted our compassion and understanding, then bought his way out of trouble. He now has no sympathy for other people without means in the same boat and still thinks we should lock them up and throw away the key. He’s a hypocrite. Especially when we know the programs he benefited from can actually work for other people, too, if they want the help. But, yeah, let’s keep pissing away tax dollars on things that don’t work to avoid spending them on things that do.

And Trump’s latest plan to gut the ACA further than he has, and to dismantle Social Security and Medicare to pay for his tax cuts to the top will only make the situation much worse. Everyone over 65 reading this probably gets one or both of those programs. If they go away completely you’d be fine? If so, why are you using either right now?

Using tax dollars in ways that make sense isn’t Socialism. Not even that Socialism is a dirty word. Republicans love using Venezuela as the ONLY example of what will happen to the United States if we take care of the poor, if we have decent free education, and make sure everyone has food, and medicine when they need it. It’s funny how you never use countries like Norway in your examples. Or New Zealand. Or Canada. Or Japan. Japan has one of the longest life expectancies on Earth, the lowest murder rate in the world, and somehow the people manage to make a decent living, and have pretty decent lives. But, yeah, let’s keep saying the US can only turn out to be like Venezuela. That assumes the majority of Americans are too stupid to go in any other direction. That sounds like a red state problem to me. The life expectancy in the United States is longer in Blue states with Connecticut having the longest life expectancy in America. Blue states also have lower crime rates, lower health problems, lower amounts of suicide, higher test scores, less teen pregnancy, less abortion, more college graduates, higher per capita GDP. We can do it if we all work together.

We just need to eliminate greed, and be willing to compromise and use some common sense,

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