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Our educational system is only socialist in regard to who foots the bill. The outcome however is drastically different for each student.
Jefferson understood the need to provide everybody the oppurtunity to obtain a quality education, just as Jefferson understood the need to provide everybody with the oppurtunity at life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
That is where the socialists on this forum go wrong. They assume that things like public education are guaranteeing equal outcomes, when infact, the education system in this country is a perfect example of capitalism with guaranteed liberties.
Students make a decision weather or not to take the education provided to them and work hard to earn grades which put them in positions to excel beyond their peers. By obtaining better grades through personal responsibility, our education system allows students to excel to the maximum of their ability. Our education system doesn't average class grades and give them to everybody... which is socialism.
We guarantee our citizens the oppurtunity to excel, based on their effort. Students are held to the same standards.
Your post assumes that the outcome of all students must be the same. This allows you to stated that socialism, as applied to the funding of the educational system, is justification for implementation of socialist policies in our society to guarantee outcomes; which is very far from the truth.
Our education system is a great example of capitalism and personal responsibility.
my post assumes no such thing. I stated that the system gives students teh ABILITY to get a quality education. Without the current system , that ability wouldn't exist irregardless of whether someone takes "personal" responsibilty or not.
Also, being poor is not always about how responsible or irresponsible or how hard you work.
If EVERYONE could be a six figure earner just by saying I want to be a six figure earner, we would all be. But some people aer just not made to be anything but what they are.
For example, I could never be a nurse. I could never do that job ( I admire what they do) but it's just not who I am. By the same token , the guy who is a car mechanic may not have the ability to be an attorney and the attorney may never have the mechanical ability to ever fix his own car.. even if he wanted to.
That being said, just because someone cleans toilets for a livign doesn't make them less valuable to society. Yes, they are less valuable in how much money they will earn based on someone with a higher degree of education. But just because that person earns far less doesn't mean that society doesn't need him in order to function and operate. AFter all, if we were all high earners whose job it wasnt' to clean the toilets, then who would clean the toilets.
That person will never take a luxury cruise perhaps, or buy a huge mansion or even a house at all. They will never enjoy the benefits that those who earn at a higher income do, But they do, at the very least, deserve to live with some form of dignity.. ie: with a roof over their head, food in their belly and care when they are sick even if they do not make a "living wage" or a wage that allows them to provide all those things on their own. Sad truth is that many jobs do not provide a living wage. And , at this point, people that are above the working poor, ie: the middle class, are having difficulties providing themselves with all that AND medical care , as the access (health insurance) is now priced out of the ability of a working family to provide for themselves (not poor, not rich) and the health care itself is priced out of the range of affordability for most working families.
What kind of society would we be if those that are working are still living in the gutters, urinating in our streets, unable to have a roof over their head to shower and were starving? What would that say about America.
We have a welfare to work program which means that you can not collect welfare unless and until you are working. I really do not believe that people at that level.. working but still poor, are truly "happy" people... and certainly if they could they would get themselves out of it. Sometimes they just can't. They are just built the way they are built. They DO have the opportunities, if they can, to get themselves out of that situation .. and sometimes they are just plain stuck for one reason or another. sometimes, despite what people on this board want to perpetrate, the poorest people are the hardest working kind of people you will ever meet.
All of this Capitalistic security is fantastic for us unstable socialists. It has allowed China to have America tucked deep in its pockets and many many Brits, for example, to come over to the USA and make a killing on buying property. I myself know at least a dozen brits that have just bought houses and even multiple houses in the USA. Damn this Socialism is such a failure....lmao
Will any of these countries be among those trying to get Obama to sign the Copenhagen treaty that is aimed at forcing the US to pay more than its fair share of the Crap and Tax laws? Sure they will but then anything socialist is pretty fair to them.
How many of those countries that are so happy have enough people to pay for to tie the US? Is there a chance that it would take all of them in northern Europe to equal us in population? Sure there is a chance of that and things are just too sad when we start talking about per capita and never mention that the US has 300 million, China has over 1 billion and so does India. That per capita crap is socialist as it can be but keep on throwing those per capita UN sponsored things at us.
A focus on strong social benefits is something that should be of greater importance in the US. I want to see the wasteful spending cut and lets put our tax dollars to work for the citizens.
OMG! I though socialism was bad. Why isn't USA #1? [/sarcasm]
I forgot to ask Pad where those questions were asked in the US. Maybe you could do that for me. I am sure that if you centered your sample in the proper places happiness would turn out low although it is not a normal feeling for all the people in the country.
Since you liked Pad's studies so much maybe you could tell me how many of those countries would have to be lumped together to equal the land area of the US and how many total populations would have to be added together to get 300 million. Just wondering but I am sure I know the answers.
Socialism paranoia..... is irrational and illogical.
Now, before anyone label me a liberal, socialist, communist, and what not, leave the labels at the door, they don't apply. I'm a conservative.
I have a question for those who are against socialism, why are you against socialism? What's wrong with socialism?
The core belief system behind socialism is in fact, great! It would lead to a virtual utopian society. The problem is, humans aren't ready for that sort of society. There are always power hungry individuals out there who seek to use a system like this to reap rewards upon themselves. That is why socialism is bad. The actual concept is wonderful, if people could actually live by this sort of doctrine. But they can't, and that fact has been proven time and time again. There are literally no examples of socialism as it was envisioned. Socialism never helps, it always hurts. And the reason for that is us.
Folks, the following items are based on socialism:
Highways.
Public schools.
Police.
Fire.
Public hospitals.
Medicare.
Armed forces.
Rail.
FDA.
Now, would you like to remove socialism from all of that and privatize everything?
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