PuroFreak:No Four, I'm afraid you are wrong. When you take the money from the wealthy and redistribute it to the rest of the country that is socialism my friend. That is pretty much the exact definition. Now what you were describing would be more along the lines of Fascism... Thats another story. Redistribution of wealth is socialism period. Definition from Dictionary.com reads: Socialism- Any of various theories or systems of social organization in which the means of producing and distributing goods is owned collectively or by a centralized government that often plans and controls the economy.
urbino: PuroFreak:No Four, I'm afraid you are wrong. When you take the money from the wealthy and redistribute it to the rest of the country that is socialism my friend. That is pretty much the exact definition. Now what you were describing would be more along the lines of Fascism... Thats another story. Redistribution of wealth is socialism period. Definition from Dictionary.com reads: Socialism- Any of various theories or systems of social organization in which the means of producing and distributing goods is owned collectively or by a centralized government that often plans and controls the economy. How do you get from that definition to the notion that socialism = wealth redistribution, Puro? The definition says socialism is gov't ownership of the means of production and distribution. If the gov't doesn't take ownership of the means of production and distribution, it isn't socialism, according to this definition. Redistribution of wealth is not ownership of the means of production and distribution, and therefore is not socialism. OTOH, insofar as the Paulson plan involves the gov't buying an ownership stake in these banks, that is socialism. (Actually, even that is slightly problematic since banks don't produce or distribute anything, but close enough.)
Fourtotheflush:Unfortunately the analogy doesn't work. The grades being awarded for hard work and smarter kids dont equate to earnings and taxes.
dutyje:I love the board game Monopoly. I'm great at Monopoly -- ruthless. My wife refuses to play me in Monopoly. I remember when I was young, I always made my little brother play me in Monopoly. The most rewarding part of the game always came when I was swimming in wealth. However, I couldn't be stopped. Normally, when somebody lands on Boardwalk with a hotel, and it soaks all their money, that's supposed to be the end of the game. That's not how it worked for me. When my poor brother would roll into my line of hotels, and exhaust his resources, with all his properties mortgaged, I didn't want the game to end. See, I didn't yet have all the hotels and houses possible, and he still had some mortgaged properties. Also, there was still a lot of money in the box that didn't belong to either of us. So rather than let the game just end, and snuff him out, I'd buy his mortgaged properties for outrageous sums of money (how about I give you $5,000 for Baltic Avenue?). I tell you what... I'll give you a refund on you utility bill and I'll cut your railway fares in half. Of course, this only extended the game to his inevitable bankruptcy.. but that still wasn't enough. I needed to have everything. I'd waive his hotel fees until he had the money. I'd spot him some dough. If you've ever played against someone like me, it's not any fun. You see, my brother knew he had no chance, and he would eventually refuse to sell me his properties. I'd have to offer him quite a bit just to get him to play along. It was a delicate balance between total game domination and having him suddenly fly into a rage and throw the board across the room. That was the worst possible outcome for a greedy, anal-retentive perfectionist such as myself. I wanted the perfect game, and his broke ass wasn't about to stop me. So I'd feed him enough money to keep him happy while I grew my interminable wealth. Rebates, refunds, reductions in fees, waivers. I'd bail him out of jail just so he could keep hitting my properties. I loved it. Just sitting here thinking about it makes me smile. I love that game.
Fourtotheflush:Just as info Wiki really isnt a fully trusted source for definitions. At any time it can be totally off because users can edit it.
sane:First if you want to get the definition of Socialism then you should read a socialist party site such as http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/whatissoc.html If you don't want to read this or other socialism sites then here is the definition of socialism: "Central to the meaning of socialism is common ownership. This means the resources of the world being owned in common by the entire global population." Second if you are scared of Obama socializing are government then you should look at what the last 3 republicans presidents have do, or you can just look at what the Bush administration just did by forcing 9 US banks to accept partial nationalization.
PuroFreak: sane:First if you want to get the definition of Socialism then you should read a socialist party site such as http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/whatissoc.html If you don't want to read this or other socialism sites then here is the definition of socialism: "Central to the meaning of socialism is common ownership. This means the resources of the world being owned in common by the entire global population." Second if you are scared of Obama socializing are government then you should look at what the last 3 republicans presidents have do, or you can just look at what the Bush administration just did by forcing 9 US banks to accept partial nationalization. If I was pleased with most of what President Bush has done that would mean something. But take a look at the vote count for the Fail Out package and you will see that a LOT more Demos voted for the bill than Reps. And as McCain said tonight, if you wanted Obama against Bush, then he should have ran 4 years ago. haha Best line of the entire debate!
sane: Also for the BS about Joe the plumber, if you look at most small business's 90% or more make a NET profit of less then $250k so they will not see an increase in taxes in most cases they will see a drop.