Socialist In America

About me:

Fellow comrades! This is a site I started to help other Socialists like my self to connect with other like minded political thinkers. If you are a Socialist, or are interested in becoming one please send in a friend request. I deny no one. What if the world were a place where everyone had the comfortable essentials of a full life, including satisfying work, housing, food, clothing and healthcare? Plus the opportunity to learn and develop into all she/he could be? A worlld where neither the environment nor people were exploited? Democratic Socialism is the exciting, life affirming idea for a world that works for everyone, a vision whose time can come. This pamphlet is for people who know little about socialism but have questions about it. WHAT IS DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISM? Democratic Socialism extends democracy from the political system to the economic system. A Democratic political system is a system of government controlled by the people. Socialists want to extend that democratic control to the way goods and services are produced. We want to change from a form where production is for profit (capitalism) to a form where production is for the use of all, in harmony with the earth (socialism) CAPITALISM What is wrong with a system where profit is the purpose of production? A great many things. For example, to maximize profits, unemployment is necessary in order to weaken the bargaining power of working people seeking higher pay or better benefits and working conditions, because workers know that others are competing for their jobs. Unemployment creates insecurity and poverty and puts worker against worker, often along lines of race, ethnicity, or class, where those who are lower on the economic ladder or differ in some way are made to appear your competitors or willing to work for less. Even without unemployment, the profit system results in absurd differences in wealth, where a few at the top have more than the can ever use, and enormous numbers of people are left with not enough or in poverty. At the same time, capitalism’s race for profits requires enormous expenditures for advertising (paid for by the consumer) with its manipulation of out wants and fears and the downplaying of our critical capability (which ability is crucial in a democracy), since all we need to do is respond at our primitive level to this commoditization of life. Maximizing profits results in exploitation of workers, the environment and the consumer. Capitalists can make more money for themselves if the they pay their workers little as they can get by with. The same if they use up the environment rather than respect it and husband it. And the same if they make products that they can control the price of. What are negative assurances? For instance “rents are high - but that’s the way the world is” with the implicit conclusion (negative assurance) that there is really nothing that can be done; it isn’t even discussed execpt in liberal terms such as a long shot at a possible rent control law if the problem becomes extreme. With socialism the starting point would be housing for all. Are people “good” enough to become Socialists? Being “good” (or perfectible ect.) has nothing to do with it. If ordinary people realize what capitalism really does and learn what democratic socialism can do, many will want to try it. People don’t have to be intrinsically good; democratic forms will correct their mistakes and excesses. However, for capitalism to function it must encourage personality/behavior that is aggressive, acquisitive, manipulative and selfish (“bad”). But a system based on real human values will reinforce humane behavior (“good”). I knew somebody who didn’t have much but always took strangers into his home, freely shared everything he had, and was very open and generous. Somebody said he was a real Socialist. Sounds more like a siant to me! I think that’s fine, but you don’t have to be a saint to be a Socialist, nor do you have to live in a hovel and give everything away. The virtues, and perhaps even the planetary necessity, of “Simple Living” aside, why not have a swimming pool if you can afford it? (Although it would be cheaper to share one!) Even wealthy people can be Socialists if they work toward the kind of society we are talking about, but they would be hypocritical if they exploited people at the same time. Another is that such a fundamental change seems impossible. Millions of people see the flaws, cruelties and injustices of capitalism, but they may not have thought about this in a systematic way and may fear that the problem is too big to do anything about. To this I quote Margaret Mead: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” There are a great many people who are now discourage about making fundamental social change; they will come will come forward when the momentum builds. Remember the Viet Nam War. Opponents were a seeming small minority; opposition built momentum and then one unmarked day the polarity changed and the rest is history. For more info on the Socialist Party USA go to http://sp-usa.org