Why do people think Socialism is Evil

[JRslinger]

The problem I have with socialism is its tendency to take away individual freedom for "the common good"

Since I believe people are entitled to keep most of what they earn, it bothers me to see socialist governments take so much money from productive people and hand it to unproductive people which effectively rewards them for whatever bad decisions they made. The socialists believe its unfair that some people can have more stuff than other people, buying into the idea that money = happiness. They seem to aspire to some kind of Utopia where everyone is equal and happy.

There's hate speech laws that can be used to prosecute you for criticizing certain groups of people.

Some socialists realize that the war on drugs is a bad idea, but think a war on guns will work. So they pass gun control laws that are ineffective at preventing crime, but reduce our ability to protect ourselves.

Socialists want to ban large cars and limit us to driving tiny "death trap" cars.

Recently some leftist cities have banned trans fats which shows a desire to control what we
can eat, possibly the beginning of a "war on food"

Also they claim that they care about poor people but then enact regressive taxes such as
sales, tobacco and gasoline taxes

 

[MmmFiber]

Public services are socialist in nature. I don't like it because current socialist models downplay competition and I think competition is responsible for most things we enjoy today. Now, that doesn't mean I dont want to take care of my fellow man. I just dont like it when systems make it easy for people to take advantage and drain the system of funds that could go to help other people. After making sure that businesses play fair and that the economy doesn't collapse, govt should stay out of business.

 

[quiet_samurai]

(applying to the USA) Because we have suffered from 60 years of propaganda and lies concerning socialism. Misinformation regarding how socialism actually works was stuffed down the throats of older generations who in turn passed it onto their children. But little do they realize that the USA already has socialized systems. The Postal service, School system, paychecks going out to members in the military, the military itself, people who works federal jobs like the state park sevice or forest service, in certain states people that work in liquor stores.... I could go on. All those programs are paid for by socialist means, but we don't called it socialism, we call it tax dollars.

Also with certain socialist reforms people who are considered to be in the elite and powerful will be treated no better than those that are lower than them on the social ladder. Socialism doesn't stem from communism, communism is socialism taken to the extreme.

 

[UpSkirtDistress]

The reason so many people have a problem with socialism is because of its relation with communism. You actually have it backwards communism has its roots in socialism not the other way around, and many governments that began socialist turned communist (ex. Soviet Union). Socialism is a great idea in theory, but tends not to work so well in practice. People fear it because they are uneducated and don't fully understand it, however there are some true roots to their fear, in that a true socialist government has yet to succeed. Elements of socialism do exist in certain governments and seem to work well. Just my opinion and I mean no offense to anyone!

Thing is, Canada, Sweden, and France, among others, are very Socialist, if not purely, and they do fine.

Exactly I said that some governments have elements of socialism in them, but they are not fully socialist that is why they work. Elements of socialist seem to work very well, but capitalism is necessary at least in today's society and true socialism theoretically does not allow for capitalism.

True. But as you said, the best thing seems to be Capitalist with a fair bit of Socialist mixed in. Which is why I'm appalled that the slightest shift towards a Socialist policy is immediately branded Communist and evil.

You two ...heroes ,this here is intelligence

 

[Souplex]

America already has socialized schools, libraries, fire departments, post offices and police departments, that seems pretty socialist to me.

 

[Ridergurl10]

The reason so many people have a problem with socialism is because of its relation with communism. You actually have it backwards communism has its roots in socialism not the other way around, and many governments that began socialist turned communist (ex. Soviet Union). Socialism is a great idea in theory, but tends not to work so well in practice. People fear it because they are uneducated and don't fully understand it, however there are some true roots to their fear, in that a true socialist government has yet to succeed. Elements of socialism do exist in certain governments and seem to work well. Just my opinion and I mean no offense to anyone!

Thing is, Canada, Sweden, and France, among others, are very Socialist, if not purely, and they do fine.

Exactly I said that some governments have elements of socialism in them, but they are not fully socialist that is why they work. Elements of socialist seem to work very well, but capitalism is necessary at least in today's society and true socialism theoretically does not allow for capitalism.

True. But as you said, the best thing seems to be Capitalist with a fair bit of Socialist mixed in. Which is why I'm appalled that the slightest shift towards a Socialist policy is immediately branded Communist and evil.

I agree, it's really annoying that people automatically assume socialism is evil and in my opinion its because people don't take the time to understand the differences between socialism and communism and people are just basically ignorant and annoying . . . sadly true

 

[Code ZX-19]

Communism doesn't work at all so people assume that if we have anything that is related to Communism, the economy will fail and the Government will eventually turn into a Communist Government. People fear it because they think they'll become poor and end up being enslaved by a dictator!

 

[NeutralDrow]

The problem I have with socialism is its tendency to take away individual freedom for "the common good"

There's another word for that: "government."

 

[Sewblon]

Economically I am a libertarian so I distrust socialism. I know that most forms of socialism are not communism proper, but for redistribution of wealth that is not absolutist to work the people who initially posses the wealth have to stick it out to a certain extent. Historically they either hide their wealth or emigrate to somewhere with politics that favor them more, in this era that would be places like Singapore.

 

[Souplex]

Communism doesn't work at all so people assume that if we have anything that is related to Communism, the economy will fail and the Government will eventually turn into a Communist Government. People fear it because they think they'll become poor and end up being enslaved by a dictator!

The only real by the book Communism to ever happen was the Paris commune which failed not because of Communism but because Marx pissed off some anarchists who wanted to join so they wrecked up the place.

And now its time for...

SMART ASS SOUPLEX FUN FACTS!

Marx had terrible hemorrhoids so in every picture of him sitting down he looks really angry even though he was supposedly a really nice guy.

 

[Orlana]

Americans hate socialism because it conflicts with the idea of capitalism. We've been lead to believe that Socialism will take away what is rightfully ours and give to people who don't work for it what they get. Except that programs like welfare are already doing that and instead of it being fair, I'm working my ass off to support myself as well as all the people taking advantage of systems like that.

 

[CoziestPigeon]

Fox. News.

 

[Cid Silverwing]

Because they associate it with Stalin-level communism.

 

[vultureX21]

Because they associate it with Stalin-level communism.

Which is in fact not Communism but Totalitarianism, they just called it Communism to try and fool everyone and incredibly actually did fool some people.

 

[Pseudonym2]

When you live in a society built around a certain political system/ideal (democracy), you are taught to view other systems as "evil" (communism, socialism, national socialism, etc.).

That's my exact point democracy is a political system. Socialism is economics system. There is no reason why someone can't have a democratic socialist system.

 

[Rigs83]

In America it pays, politically, to make the poor poorer and the rich richer and thing don't change unless a catastrophic event happens, like The Great Depression and this current recession, to make everyone suffer. Socialism was thought to be threat to the status quo so the power brokers in America tried to stop it by undoing many of the New Deal programs and deregulating financial markets and privatizing various government run programs such as the prison systems and even technical support for the military.

Their utter failure to do a proper job and not lose peoples life savings by giving loans to unemployed drug addicts to buy McMansions is why the government is trying to reinstate control in the finance markets now. Now I am using hyperbole but the failure of Regan Era capitalism is dumbfounding.