Why is the right so afraid of it ?
Surely its a good thing that we help people when they stumble ?
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socialism
noun
so·cial·ism | \ ˈsō-shə-ˌli-zəm \
Definition of socialism
1: any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods
Definition of SOCIALISM
Your definition of socialism is wrong:
"a political and economic theory of social organization which advocates that the means of production, distribution, and exchange
should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole"
Socialist democracies have both private and public ownership of property. But regulation of the both the private and public sector is necessary for the health, safety, and security of the people. Under this definition, the USA has been a socialist state since its founding, since the Founding Fathers believed in a nation which the government provided publically owned and run schools, libraries, a Post Office, and other things necessary for the common good, and for the country to prosper.
Government regulation is not a BAD thing. It keeps your air and water clean and safe. Without the EPA, you'd be living in China. But you're a long, long way from having the kind of country you could have and should have, because successive conservative administrations have valued profits above the American people.
Conservatives are always talking about the things that Americans "can't afford". You can't afford universal health care. But you can afford 18 years of continuous warfare on foreign soils, costing trillions of dollars and netting exactly what for the people of your nation?
You're building a ******* Space Force, but you can't afford text books, and computers in every classroom in America. Education is the ONLY way for those born into the poorest households in America to have a realistic chance of becoming productive taxpayers, and yet these children have the fewest dollars expended on their education, as is humanly possible. They will remain part of the growing underclass of workers the US counts on for cheap goods, and then decries because they're taking government handouts.
You can't afford to regulate your corporations to keep the air and water clean for your citizens, but you can afford billions for government shutdowns when politicians don't get their way.
The US government has lots and lots of money for wars, walls, space forces, and tax breaks for millionaire, but none for the "general welfare" of the people who pay those taxes, since corporations and billionaires are paying less and less and taking more and more.