Socialism Vs. Capitalism

[HondurasKeiser]

Socialism is an attempt to destroy top-down, dictatorial order (unsuccessfully) and is a direct response to the growing Individualism that comes out of the Enlightenment.

The concept, maybe, but as soon as humans put it into practice, it becomes a top down authoritarian system. Someone has to decide for others. This moves us away from freedom of choice, of which is the foundational principle of faith in Jesus.

I am not saying that Socialism-in-practice isn't authoritarian or oppressive, rather that it's a logical countervail to Individualism. That is to say, if you don't want Socialism don't promote Individualism. As long as Individualism continues to grow and spread, so too will Socialism.

[Robert]

You just did it again. The freedom to choose Jesus and the freedom to have an abortion or own a gun or spend all of my money on clothing, are not the same thing.

They are all a part of individualism. They may not have the same equal outcomes, but the right of the individual to choose is the foundation.

[Robert]

I am not saying that Socialism-in-practice isn't authoritarian or oppressive, rather that it's a logical countervail to Individualism. That is to say, if you don't want Socialism don't promote Individualism. As long as Individualism continues to grow and spread, so too will Socialism.

You can feel that way and I can disagree.

[Robert]

Wonderful speech founded on individualism.

[HondurasKeiser]

Wonderful speech founded on individualism.

I agree with the man speaking - he blames America’s problems on “a moral and spiritual free fall”. Whence the free fall?

[Robert]

I agree with the man speaking - he blames America’s problems on “a moral and spiritual free fall”. Whence the free fall?

Yep, and what will fix it is individuals doing better.

[HondurasKeiser]

I agree with the man speaking - he blames America’s problems on “a moral and spiritual free fall”. Whence the free fall?

Yep, and what will fix it is individuals doing better.

Is that your experience? Individuals left to their own devices tend to do better? Is that how we parent?

[Robert]

Is that your experience? Individuals left to their own devices tend to do better? Is that how we parent?

I have tried to help a lot of people in my life. Those who were helping themselves were the ones I found I could help and it matter. Those who were not trying to help themselves would squander anything I did for them.

You keep taking it to such an extreme and making it binary. I never have. A person has to make some choices for themselves. They are given the ability by God, not government. Natural law is just another process God uses.

Once a person has made a choice, community is important. Without the choice community is most often wasted.

[Ken]

I am not saying that Socialism-in-practice isn't authoritarian or oppressive, rather that it's a logical countervail to Individualism. That is to say, if you don't want Socialism don't promote Individualism. As long as Individualism continues to grow and spread, so too will Socialism.

Here in the US, all of the following are forms of socialism:

Medicare and Medicaid
Social Security
Public airports and the FAA air traffic control system
Subsidized crop insurance and the entire system of farm subsidies from sugar to milk.
GPS and weather satellites
FEMA and disaster relief
Federal flood insurance
The US Army Corps of Engineers system of dikes, levees, and locks on the Mississippi, Ohio, Great Lakes, etc.
The interstate highway system
Public schools and universities
The Federal Reserve
Ethanol
The entire system of dams and irrigation in the entire west from the Colorado River to the Columbia.
The Tennessee Valley Authority
The CDC and NIH
etc. etc.

[temporal1]

Wonderful speech founded on individualism.
[media]https://twitter

I agree with the man speaking - he blames America’s problems on “a moral and spiritual free fall”. Whence the free fall?

ROBERT WOODSON is a good man to know about.

Robert Woodson
https://www.thehistorymakers.org/biogra ... woodson-39

Community activist Robert L. "Bob" Woodson has devoted his career to helping low-income people transcend their impoverished conditions. Born in Philadelphia on April 8, 1937, Woodson has used his own rise from poverty to assist him as the founder and president of the National Center for Neighborhood Enterprise (NCNE).

Woodson spent his early years in South Philadelphia before his father relocated their family to West Philadelphia in 1946. Shortly thereafter, his father died and Woodson's mother was overwhelmed by the task of being a single parent. Woodson became estranged from his mother, lost his self-confidence and dropped out of high school. At age seventeen, he joined the Air Force and turned his life around. Woodson earned his G.E.D. while in the service, going on to study mathematics at Cheyney University. Woodson then took a job at a juvenile jail and, as he began to identify with the kids in the jail, dedicated himself to helping them. He decided to go into social work, attending the University of Pennsylvania, where he earned an M.S.W.

Woodson, however, grew disenchanted with the bureaucratic restrictions and regulations of liberal anti-poverty programs. After working for the National Urban League, Woodson became a research fellow with the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where he learned effective techniques for self-empowerment. Because AEI emphasized theory more than direct action, Woodson left in 1981 to create NCNE, a grassroots research and demonstration program emphasizing the importance of empowerment and self-management as effective approaches for ending poverty.

For his contributions, Woodson received a prestigious "Genius Grant" from the MacArthur Foundation in 1990. He sits on the boards of the American Association of Enterprise Zones, the Commission on National and Community Service, and the Commonwealth Foundation. Woodson has also written extensively on issues of poverty and empowerment, including The Triumphs of Joseph: How Today's Community Healers are Reviving Our Streets and Neighborhoods. Woodson and his wife, Ellen, live in Silver Spring, Maryland. They have three children.