Do you believe in Private Property?

Interestingly, in the original draft of the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson had penned that our inalienable rights include the pursuit of "Life, Liberty, and Property". Ultimately, sadly I think, he substituted "Happiness" for "Property". It helps if you understand that most people escaped the "Old World" to get a little piece of property for themselves. Yes, I know that most of us were taught they came to America for religious freedom and other purposes, but if you study history, rather than learn to hate it, you'll discover that keeping what you earn was the real driving force then as now. How does this apply to socialism? Actually, it doesn't. Like Bernie Sanders, most people don't have a clue as to what socialism really is. Socialism may be tyrannical as practiced by Nazis and Communists or it may be truly democratic as practiced in some modern European nations (actually not many). Socialism is simply a concept of community or government ownership of the means of production. It was tried in America by the Pilgrims and almost destroyed their colony. They only survived by abandoning it and shifting to a free market economy. No, what the author of this discussion should focus on is the cancerous growth of government. Government can grow and be intrusive without being socialist as is ours (the U.S.). It does not (yet) own the means of production but is attempting to interfere as though it does. A century of this trend (since the Administration of Woodrow Wilson) has seen the decline of the American economy in response to the growth of government intrusion. That is simply verifiable fact.

SSG(P) (Join to see) - Sergeant; Where did you get the idea that "Socialism" involved appropriation at gun point and that "Capitalism" doesn't involve appropriation at all?

Yeah, this question isn't really related to socialism. It sounds more like an attempt to bitch about welfare. But there are lots of things we in the US are forced to pay for that we may not agree with. Should a person with no kids be forced to pay for the education of other peoples kids? Why should they get "free" school instead of each parent having to pay for themselves? Should any government have the ability to order its citizens into military service, against their will, and force them to work as a soldier or fight a war they feel is against the constitution? That's not just paying for something, that's taking over your life. When someone who doesn't pay for health insurance goes to the hospital, should those that do pay have to pay for his coverage through higher premiums? Or should the government require everyone to pay for insurance if they can? Or let's get really personal--since soldiers volunteer to join the military, and no one makes them, should the taxpayers have to pay for their healthcare for the rest of their lives? No other job does that. If privatization is so always so great, why don't we privatize the military? Captialism says that if we have different companies competing to provide our defense, then we would get the best defense at the lowest cost due to competition.

Nothing is a clear cut as if there is a bright shining line between capitalism and socialism, especially as it is addressed in regards to Bernie Sanders being a socialist. Many throw it out as a dirty word, harking back to the USSR versions. But I remember a sign I saw in the video of a Tea Party rally that an old woman was holding that said "keep the government away from my medicare". The irony of that seemed to escape her.