Term
Mcmaken 1 Bernie Sanders Is Right: The US Is Already a Socialist Country
BERNIE SANDERS says:
- Social Security, which transformed life for the elderly in this country was “socialist.”
- The concept of the “minimum wage” was seen as a radical intrusion into the marketplace and described as “socialist.”
|
|
Definition
- Unemployment insurance, abolishing child labor, the 40-hour work week, collective bargaining, strong banking regulations, deposit insurance, and job programs that put millions of people to work were all described, in one way or another, as “socialist.”
|
|
|
Term
Mcmaken 2 Bernie Sanders Is Right: The US Is Already a Socialist Country
- Marxism was just one type of socialism in the 19th century, and it failed to gain traction in western Europe.
- By the mid-19th century, it was already becoming clear that the predictions of Marxism were wrong.
- The ownership of capital was not becoming more concentrated. It was becoming more diffuse.
|
|
Definition
- The working classes were not descending into a wretched proletariat in western Europe.
- They were experiencing gains in their standard of living.
|
|
|
Term
Mcmaken 2 Bernie Sanders Is Right: The US Is Already a Socialist Country
- For Eduard Bernstein, socialism was not about revolution. It was about using democratic institutions to regulate the capitalists in a way that Bernstein thought benefited the workers.
- These included things like government pensions, minimum wages, state regulation of labor hours, and more.
|
|
Definition
|
|
Term
Mcmaken 3 Bernie Sanders Is Right: The US Is Already a Socialist Country
- Support for Social Security is nothing more than support for taking the property of current wage earners and redistributing it to pensioners.
- It explains why pensioners in the early decades of the Social Security programs often received far more in benefits than they ever paid in Social Security taxes.
|
|
Definition
|
|
Term
Mcmaken 3,5 Bernie Sanders Is Right: The US Is Already a Socialist Country
- Socialism isn't just about cash transfer payment. It's largely about government regulation, which is where the New Deal was most revolutionary.
- If we're measuring socialism by the sheer volume of wealth that is redistributed, the United States ranks second in the wealthy West.
|
|
Definition
|
|
