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View Poll Results: Do you think America will adopt more "Europeanized" labor/social system?
Yes 25 60.98%
No 16 39.02%
Voters: 41. You may not vote on this poll

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Old 09-28-2015, 04:04 PM
 
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Will America in (near) future adopt more labor laws / social welfare programs like they do in all other western/industrial nations (mandatory paid time off from work, national health care, very low cost/free universities, etc.)? Taxes doesn't necessary have to go up; budget management / cutting other unnecessary funding such as foreign aid a big step.

 
Old 09-28-2015, 04:06 PM
 
Location: Portland, Oregon
46,001 posts, read 35,180,801 times
Reputation: 7875
Let's hope so, but don't hold your breath over it. I don't expect Congress to work out their mess and divide any time soon.
 
Old 09-28-2015, 04:11 PM
Status: "UB Tubbie" (set 25 days ago)
 
20,050 posts, read 20,855,965 times
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The U.S. is already a socialist country.
Has been for probably 7 or 8 years.
I can't wait to get on the line for toilet paper and bread.
 
Old 09-28-2015, 04:12 PM
 
Location: Londonderry, NH
41,479 posts, read 59,791,864 times
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I hope so. We need to reform our Health Care system by eliminating the private insurance system to start. We need more government control over the banking and financial systems to prevent speculation and collusion. Look at Senator Sander's campaign for many more examples.
 
Old 09-28-2015, 04:12 PM
 
Location: Tip of the Sphere. Just the tip.
4,540 posts, read 2,768,718 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Lonerandsad View Post
Will America in (near) future adopt more labor laws / social welfare programs like they do in all other western/industrial nations (mandatory paid time off from work, national health care, very low cost/free universities, etc.)?
We're definitely moving in that direction.

I mean... have ya'll ever been around Millennials? Most of them have had BAD experiences with our brutal American form of capitalism. They see the shrill hypocrisy of their teabagger parents- and they're having none of it. That's true of politics- and also religion.

We Gen-X'ers are a relatively right-wing bunch. But the Millennial generation is VAST compared to mine. Once the Baby Boomers (The Selfish Generation) is in the nursing home and no longer voting... this country is gonna take a HARD left turn. Really it's already starting.

And it's about damn time. The American middle class has been absolutely looted since Reagan busted the unions and re-distributed every last dime to the billionaires. Time to take back what's ours... PREFERABLY by force.
 
Old 09-28-2015, 04:13 PM
 
Location: Portland, Oregon
46,001 posts, read 35,180,801 times
Reputation: 7875
Quote:
Originally Posted by hotkarl View Post
The U.S. is already a socialist country.
Has been for probably 7 or 8 years.
I can't wait to get on the line for toilet paper and bread.
What specifically has happened in the past 7 or 8 years that has turned the US into a socialist country? Other than a Democrat winning a presidential election....because that doesn't qualify as a socialist country....
 
Old 09-28-2015, 04:13 PM
 
Location: Texas
3,251 posts, read 2,553,543 times
Reputation: 3127
Quote:
Originally Posted by hotkarl View Post
The U.S. is already a socialist country.
Has been for probably 7 or 8 years.
I can't wait to get on the line for toilet paper and bread.
Easily about 100+ years.
 
Old 09-28-2015, 08:19 PM
 
Location: Laurentia
5,576 posts, read 7,999,569 times
Reputation: 2446
What you outline could happen, but there's no reason to think it will in the foreseeable future. Don't expect Millennials to be good little social democrats, either - they don't trust and don't like government or government management of the economy, as multiple Reason-Rupe polls have found; see this excellent report for the real story on Millennial politics. Millennials may bask in social liberalism* but they also like business and leaving economic lives alone, and only generally favor programs that are fairly universal, don't cost them too much, and can't be used for graft or manipulating them; this excludes most of the current government, but still leaves a few new possibilities open (e.g. expanded college grants).

I'd venture that if anything along the OP's lines does happen, the labor component is much more likely than the social welfare component. Labor movements, often strong ones, have grown natively and spread from sea to sea many times in American history. Social welfare has never done that, but rather was a European creation that established itself in universities and elite Northeastern circles** and has never penetrated much further. Historically progress in social welfare has been accepted but has never been demanded like progress in labor was, and was accompanied by doubt over national vitality (1930s/40s***) or an attack of national guilt (1960s); outside of those times and the programs they spawned social welfare has been not core but very peripheral to the American system.

*At least in the old culture-war sense; they don't let that stop them from leading a life of (relatively) tight morals, even compared to previous generations. They're icy towards casual sex and don't enthusiastically accept homosexuality (source), and sleep around less than their parents did (8 partners at age 25, compared to Xers' 10, Boomers' 11 (talk about promiscuous hookup culture ), Silents' 5, and GIs' 3).

**Not coincidentally the parts of America most closely tied to western Europe. Marxism (famously) and Fascism (not so famously) traveled a similar pathway, from western Europe to American universities and some Northeastern elites, where they stayed until they died out. In Marxism-Leninism's case, it likely had more American adherents inside colleges than outside them.

***Even then modern social welfare forms didn't penetrate much until WWII; the 1930s government disfavored "the dole" and favored "work relief" (that's what the WPA and CCC were for). Social insurance is a different matter; Americans seem to like that, and even Founders such as Thomas Paine did early work on it. They still don't demand it spontaneously, but they often do just that when it's presented to them, and typically demand to keep it. That's more than can be said for social welfare.

So in short, Americans tend to be intermittently enthusiastic about labor issues, really like social insurance when it's presented to them, and don't like social welfare that much but will accept it at times. This is a somewhat different pattern from Europeans, but we should expect that. Europe's political development path was the result of peculiar historical circumstances including two devastating wars, a great depression, the iron curtain, and going leftward in the 1970s crises*. The widespread assumption that as countries develop they should become more like Europe was after all that is simply not logical.

*In particular, "every other country" having universal health care is a newer development than people think. As recently as the 1970s it was mostly confined to a scattering of Germanic and Commonwealth countries, and "every other country" having it only became a plausible talking point after 2000 or so.
 
Old 09-29-2015, 12:01 AM
 
Location: When you take flak it means you are on target
7,646 posts, read 9,951,921 times
Reputation: 16466
Don't forget to take all the money from the rich and productive and give it to the poor and lazy.

Over my dead body.
 
Old 09-29-2015, 02:48 AM
 
Location: Phoenix
30,371 posts, read 19,162,886 times
Reputation: 26264
We are on our way to becoming more Socialist in line with European countries. I liked the fact that we were different and offered more for investors and creators to reap the benefits of their creations. I think that is partially why we have lead the world in innovation. I do think having a socialized health program like say France or Spain is better than what we have so I support taking certain steps in that direction, just not the welfare state that encourages sloth and living on the dole.
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